Trial date set in fatal school bus crash

ATHENS – A trial date has been set for an 81-year-old Athens ISD bus driver charged for a student’s death. According to our news partner KETK, John Stevens is set for trial January 22, 2022. He is charged with criminally negligent homicide and injury to a child after a bus he was driving in January 2019 was hit by a train, killing 13-year-old Christopher Bonilla and injuring 9-year-old Joselyne Torres. The process of setting a trial date has been not an easy one. A prosecutor from the Texas Attorney General’s office failed to appear at a status hearing in August, delaying the case further. The case had been handed to the AG’s office after the Henderson District Attorney Office recused itself for a “conflict of interest.”