A traffic stop on San Antonio’s Loop 410 ended with a 2012 Chrysler going through a gate off Jones Maltsberger Road and onto a runway at San Antonio International Airport, where troopers arrested the driver, KSAT reported. A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper had tried to pull the car over near Babcock Road at about 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 22. The driver, a 25-year-old Refugio man, didn’t stop.
The man, Brandon Christopher Figueroa, faces six charges, including multiple third-degree felonies, according to Bexar County court records cited by KSAT. He has not been convicted of any of them. KSAT reported on Sept. 29 that he remained in jail on a $59,500 bond, and its report did not include a statement from Figueroa or an attorney for him.
What the dashcam video and the arrest show
Footage DPS released in late September shows the Chrysler driving through a large gate off Jones Maltsberger Road and onto the airport grounds, KSAT reported. The collision disabled the car. Figueroa got out with troopers pointing weapons at him and asking him to surrender, and records show he was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center later that day.
None of the reports we reviewed say why the trooper tried to stop the Chrysler. They also do not say how fast the car was going, how long the pursuit lasted, or whether the gate breach affected airport operations. The reason for the stop is the biggest gap, because the main charge depends on the stop being lawful.
The charges grew after the arrest
The first reports, published the day of the arrest, listed two charges: evading arrest in a motor vehicle and unlawful carrying of a weapon, with a firearm found in the car. The court records KSAT cited more than a month later list evading arrest with a vehicle, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, a drug possession charge, tampering with physical evidence with intent to impair, and criminal mischief. The sixth charge, criminal trespassing with a deadly weapon, is a Class A misdemeanor.
The firearm count changed the most. The charge first reported was unlawful carrying of a weapon. The one in the court records is a different offense, unlawful possession by a felon, which Section 46.04 of the Texas Penal Code makes a third-degree felony.
How a traffic stop becomes a felony in Texas
Section 38.04 makes evading arrest or detention a Class A misdemeanor by default. Using a vehicle while fleeing raises it to a state jail felony. It reaches the third-degree level when the driver uses a vehicle after a prior evading conviction, or when someone suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of the officer’s attempt to apprehend the driver. KSAT’s list puts evading with a vehicle among the third-degree counts, but its reporting does not say which route the state is using. The charging document will.
The statute also requires that the person flee from someone he knows is a peace officer “attempting lawfully to arrest or detain him.” Lawfulness is part of the offense, so a court can look at why the stop began. That is why the unexplained reason for this stop matters.
The felon-in-possession count has its own mechanics. Section 46.04 bars a person convicted of a felony from possessing a firearm until five years after release from confinement or supervision, whichever is later, and after that only at the premises where the person lives. A car on a San Antonio road is not that. The state has to prove the earlier felony conviction, and none of the reports describe it.
The criminal mischief count is a question of money. Section 28.03 sets the third-degree level at $30,000 or more but less than $150,000 in pecuniary loss, with a handful of other triggers, and treats losses under $2,500 as misdemeanors. KSAT’s list groups criminal mischief with the third-degree felonies, and we found no dollar figure for the damage to the gate or the Chrysler. The court file will have to show what the gate cost to fix.
The tampering count falls under Section 37.09, a third-degree felony when someone who knows an investigation is pending or in progress alters, destroys or conceals a thing with intent to impair its availability as evidence. The reports do not say what object prosecutors say was involved.
It isn’t the first car to find a runway: a DoorDash driver ended up on one at Chicago’s O’Hare. Another fleeing driver lost a wheel near Mannheim Road and kept going.
What happens next in Bexar County
The reports available list no trial date, plea or hearing, and nothing we found shows a change in Figueroa’s status after KSAT’s Sept. 29 report. Each count rests on a different fact the state has to document: the prior felony, the lawfulness of the stop, the repair bill, and the evidence allegedly tampered with. For any Texas driver, the grading in Section 38.04 means a vehicle flight is a felony whatever the stop was for, and whether the stop was lawful becomes a question for the court. Other states grade vehicle flight differently.
Should running from a traffic stop in a vehicle be a felony in Texas no matter why the stop began, or should the charge climb only when someone is hurt?
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