Left to right: Ulise DeLao (Randall County Jail), Brittany A. Torres and the child she shared with DeLao (GoFundMe).
A 31-year-old father in Texas will spend several years in prison for killing the mother of his child by running her over with a pickup truck outside their home.
Ulise DeLao, who at one point faced a first-degree murder charge, reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter on Monday in the death of Brittany Torres, court records show. Randall County District Judge Titiana Frausto sentenced DeLao to five years in a state correctional facility.
In exchange for DeLao”s plea, prosecutors dropped one count of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle. DeLao’s jury trial had been scheduled to begin Monday before he accepted the terms of the plea agreement.
According to the court docket, a victim impact statement was read in open court, and DeLao waived his right to appeal before deputies took him into Randall County Sheriff’s Office custody.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the case stems from Torres’ May 2024 death outside the couple’s home.
Officers at about 1:05 a.m. on May 27, 2024, responded to the area in the 1900 block of 10th Avenue for a report of a vehicular crash involving a pedestrian. The site of the crash is about 380 miles northwest of Dallas.
“During the investigation, officers learned Ulise DeLao, age 28, struck Brittany Torres, age 27, while Torres was standing outside of the vehicle,” police wrote in a press release following DeLao’s arrest. “Torres was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Footage previously shown in court depicted DeLao twice dragging Torres out of a pickup truck. When questioned by police in May 2024, DeLao allegedly admitted to running Torres over. It was unclear whether he admitted that he intended to hit her with the truck.
Authorities in June 2024 upgraded the charge against DeLao to first-degree murder, but a grand jury in August refused to indict him on it, records show.
DeLao was released from detention in October 2024 after a judge ordered his bond reduced from $500,000 to $250,000. While out on bond, DeLao retained parental rights of the 1-year-old he shared with Torres despite efforts from Torres’ mother to have those rights revoked.
Assistant District Attorney Lacy Miller told the Amarillo Tribune that prosecutors discussed the plea offer with Torres’ family after DeLao’s defense attorney approached the state with the proposal last week.
“If they wanted to go to trial, we would go to trial. If they wanted to plea, we would plea,” Miller told the newspaper. “And when the defense approached us last week, I conveyed that to the family. They made the decision that they wanted to accept the plea and see him go to prison. And that’s exactly what happened today.”
The prosecutor added that she hoped the outcome provided those involved with some semblance of peace.
“I hope that at the end of the day, the family, both sides, everybody involved, find some level of peace and justice in what happened, and that they find some closure to all of this,” she said. “Nothing that we did or the court did, or a jury would do is going to bring Brittany back. Him admitting what he did and walking into prison is something that I hope all of them can find some bit of relief from.”
