Court Postponed Hearings on Intoxicated Manslaughter and Improper Student Relationship

On February 3, 2016, the Tom Green County Courts essentially postponed two hearings. One was a competency hearing for Malcolm Guy McBurnett, 68, and the other was a plea hearing for Monica Lyin Way, 43.

Originally, McBurnett was involved in an incident where the Goodfellow Air Force Base Marine sergeant was killed in a crash on Christoval Road back in March of 2013. Donald Di Pietro, 28, was driving his 2012 Victory motorcycle south on the 5200 block of Christoval Road when he crashed into a pickup that was stalled on the road.

McBurnett was the driver of the truck and was having issues getting his pickup to start. He enlisted the help of others who aided him in pushing it out onto the road while the truck was in neutral. McBurnett was behind the wheel trying to start his truck when Di Pietro’s motorcycle crashed into him, killing Di Pietro almost immediately according to reports.

While McBurnett was confined in the Tom Green County Jail, a pre-trail psychological examination and evaluation was ordered by the court in June 2013. The results of this examination found that McBurnett was not competent to stand trial due to the inability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding. Therefore, he was committed to a mental health facility determined by the North Texas State Hospital Vernon Campus for a period not to exceed 120 days for further examination and treatment.

According to reports, in December of 2013 the Hospital determined that McBurnett was indeed unable to effectively communicate and understand the charges against him. Another review for psychological examination was ordered again in January of 2014 and transferred to Big Spring State Hospital in March 2014. This process was repeated again in March of 2015 with the same results, and McBurnett transferred and got committed to North Texas State Hospital Kerrville Campus.

In court yesterday, the Hospital deemed McBurnett competent to stand trial and recommended a transfer via a bench warrant to bring him back to Tom Green County. However, McBurnett’s attorney stated he had visited McBurnett and attempted to speak with him about his case, but McBurnett was still unable to communicate with him fully in a reasonable manner. He showed an inability to fully understand and comprehend the charges against him. The court agreed to another psychological examination.

This past November 2015, Monica L. Way, a teacher’s aide at Central High School, was arrested and charged with an improper relationship between an educator and student. She was fired shortly thereafter because of the allegations and has been out on bail since November 25^th, according to jail records.

The relationship came to light when a San Angelo Police officer, who was working off-duty security at Central, was informed by the school’s administration about the inappropriate relationship between Way and an 18-year-old student. The mother of the student raised concerns with the administration when she read the text messages between the two on her son’s cell phone.

According to SAPD officials, who conducted the investigation, they learned there was indeed a sexual relationship between Way and the student. Way was then arrested.

During court yesterday, Way sat in the court room with arms wrapped around herself crying solemnly. Court officials notified her that she will have to complete the TRAS assessment before they could proceed, as it is a program that was effective Jan. 1, 2016 and is retroactive for all those who are on parole or will be on parole.

TRAS, Texas Risk Assessment System, is a risk assessment tool designed to help community supervision, prison, reentry and aftercare professionals create custom case management programs for individual offenders. It interprets an offender’s criminal history along with their criminogenic needs, allowing criminal justice professionals to devise the most efficient case plans possible. This enables the agency to carefully allocate supervision resources, and, in turn, reduce offender recidivism rates and increase public safety.

Further hearing dates will be set once requirements are met on both cases.