SAN ANTONIO – A man convicted of killing a driver in a 2017 wrong-way crash has received a life sentence in the case, Bexar County court records show.
Paul Donaldson was handed the life sentence for manslaughter last week after more than six years of delays, a reindictment of the case and a change of courts.
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A jury convicted Donaldson on Sept. 29 for the January 2017 death of Armando Ortiz, 28.
Donaldson was driving the wrong way on Interstate 35 and had three drugs in his system, including methamphetamine, when his vehicle collided with Ortiz’s car near Walzem Road.
Donaldson drove the wrong way on I-35 for about six miles before the crash.
The manslaughter case was Donaldson’s seventh driving-related criminal offense in Bexar County. He has a past DWI conviction here and a past conviction in Tarrant County for involuntary manslaughter while driving while intoxicated, records compiled by KSAT Investigates showed.
The Tarrant County case led prosecutors to include it as a penalty enhancement when charging him in connection to Ortiz’s death, records showed.
Ortiz’s family this summer expressed frustration over the handling of Donaldson’s criminal case.
It was moved between courts earlier this year after it was revealed the prosecutor assigned to it had presided over Donaldson’s 2015 DWI case while serving as a county court judge.