{"id":358589,"date":"2026-07-02T13:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358589\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T13:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T13:31:21","slug":"tesla-driver-arrested-in-connection-with-manslaughter-in-crash-that-that-left-woman-dead-in-home-sheriff-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358589\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla driver arrested in connection with manslaughter in crash that that left woman dead in home, sheriff says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"KTRK logo\" class=\"awXxV NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl CfkUa EknAv NwgWd \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/origin-ktrk.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thursday, July 2, 2026 3:39AM<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAJCAQAAACRI2S5AAAAEElEQVR42mNkIAAYRxWAAQAG9gAKqv6+AwAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"ABC13 Houston 24\/7 Live Stream\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The Tesla driver who claimed his car was in self-driving mode when it crashed into a home and killed a woman has been charged with manslaughter, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Online court records show Michael Butler was booked into the Harris County jail on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The crash killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside the home on Blooming Park on June 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Investigators said Butler claimed his car was in self-driving mode, but Tesla disputed that and claimed he overrode the feature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Court documents detailing the specific criminal allegations were not available at the time of publication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">ORIGINAL REPORT: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/post\/woman-killed-driver-injured-tesla-crashes-katy-area-home-harris-county-sheriffs-office-says\/19335623\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Driver told deputies Tesla was on Autopilot during crash through Katy-area home, killing woman: HCSO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday, July 2, 2026 3:39AM HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The Tesla driver who claimed his car was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[127388,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-358589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-127388","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}