A Texas man was arrested Saturday after walking into a beer garden, a few minutes after fatally striking a pedestrian with his car and leaving his mangled body parts in the passenger seat.
Paul Joseph Garcia, 24, is accused of striking the pedestrian in a white Ford Focus, sending the body through the car’s windshield. Garcia then allegedly drove another half-mile with the deceased victim in the passenger seat, Austin’s KXAN-TV reported.
Witnesses said Garcia, who was barefoot, walked “calmly” from the car into the South Austin Beer Garden “in a manner that caught the attention of the other patrons,” according to an affidavit quoted by the Austin American-Statesman.
Garcia had blood and other debris on him, the Statesman reported, which later matched “the blood and body tissue found coated in the interior of the vehicle,” as per the affidavit.
The victim was pushing a shopping cart and when Garcia allegedly hit him. Citing the affidavit, the Statesman reported that the pedestrian had “extreme, traumatic injuries to their head” and some body parts had been detached.
“The cart hit the mailboxes with a force that was able to bend a two-inch thick galvanized, steel post,” according to KXAN.
Garcia was lodged into Travis County Correctional Complex and charged with intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle, a second-degree felony, among other traffic charges, according to inmate records.
He was being held on a combined $110,000 bond, the newspaper reported.