HOUSTON — A man and woman who beat and carjacked an Uber driver in northwest Houston last November have pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Frank Lewis Blanco, 28, and Destinee Guerrero, 25, were charged with carjacking with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm.
Editor's note: The above video originally aired in Dec. 2022.
They knocked the victim unconscious, repeatedly stomped and kicked him and then stole his car, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said.
The driver suffered a traumatic brain injury, concussion, broken eye socket, broken nose and multiple cuts "causing permanent disfiguration," according to police.
“This couple senselessly beat an Uber driver unconscious for doing nothing more than trying to give them a ride,” Hamdani said. “My late father was a cab driver, and I can’t imagine the horror and fear he would have felt in that same situation."
They could get up to 15 years in prison.
“Once again, violent criminals thought they were entitled to break the law and get away with it. In this case, to savagely beat their Uber driver and steal his vehicle. And once again, the heavy arm of the federal justice system caught up with them and stopped them in their tracks,” Special Agent in Charge James Smith of the FBI Houston Field Office said. “These criminals are unrelenting, and so are we.”
What happened
The Uber driver picked up Blanco and Guerrero on the morning of Nov. 13, 2022, but said they kept changing their destination.
After 30 minutes of this, the fed up driver asked the couple to get out of the car, but they refused.
He stopped at a gas station on Ella Boulevard at the North Loop and asked the attendant to call the police. Blanco and Guerrero then attacked him.
Here's raw video of the incident:
Blanco was arrested on Dec. 28 thanks to a tip, according to the Houston Police Department. They were still looking for Guerrero at that time.
The victim
The driver didn't want to be identified when he was interviewed by KHOU 11 News in November.
The immigrant from El Salvador said he'd been driving for Uber for five years without any issues. He said he loved his job but this senseless attack nearly cost him his life.
"You're going to find all kinds of people. The sweetest people and the worst," the driver said. "And you can't expect anything from the worst. The sweet is sweet, sometimes I even get a good tip from the people, but here instead of getting a tip, I got my face like a monster."
He said the duo got aggressive when he told them to get out of his car.
"I was not doing anything," he said. "I was just trying to do my job and they started to get aggressive."
The driver said they threw him on the ground and started attacking him.
"The guy especially, the guy started kicking my face like it was a football for him," he said. "I couldn't do anything. I was trying to defend myself. I just couldn't do it."
Police found his car a week after the incident at Montie Beach Park but the victim said he was not ready to get back in the driver's seat.
"Right now, I am anxious," he said. "I am afraid. I don't feel confident in myself. I lost my faith."