Hartman’s Client Gets Deferred Adjudication For Hitting Boyfriend with Her Car

SAN ANGELO, TX -- In what District Judge Jay Weatherby called one of the most interesting cases he’s heard in his time on the bench, a San Angelo woman received six years deferred adjudication probation for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but will spend 180 days in the Tom Green County Jail.  

21-year-old Perla Garza was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after she hit 24-year-old Jacob Galvan with her car in the Tres Amigos parking lot on College Hills Blvd.  The incident was caught on surveillance video which was played in court Friday morning. Galvan testified he was injured but did not seek medical treatment. The video shows Garza’s car jump the curve and strike Galvan and a signpost at the same time.  She then backed up and drove off.

Garza and Galvan have what testimony showed was a volatile relationship.  Attorneys described eight violent incidents between Garza and Galvan in the last four years with Garza driving her car toward Galvan on three separate occasions.  Garza and Galvan have two children between them. Garza had her first child when she was 15 and Galvan was 18 according to testimony.

Witnesses testified the couple got into physical altercations in Buffalo Wild Wings, The Parrot’s Head Tavern and LISM Lounge in San Angelo.  

Sweetwater attorney Chris Hartman was Garza’s defense attorney.  Hartman was also the probate attorney in the John Young trial.

Judge Weatherby told Garza that testimony did not show that she was a danger to society but he wanted her to get a taste of what incarceration is like so he sentenced her to spend 180 days in the Tom Green County Jail.  

Garza’s children, ages four and five, were taken by Child Protective Services and placed temporarily with Galvan’s mother.  Both Garza and Galvan were ordered by CPS to take anger management classes and parenting classes.

Judge Weatherby also ordered Garza to stay out of bars and not consume alcohol and to have no contact or communication with Galvan for the six years of deferred adjudication.