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Members of Beaumont Police and family of Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell gather outside Judge Stevens' courtroom for the sentencing of Luis Torres Monday. Instead, Torres withdrew his guilty plea entered April 19, and a trial date was set for July 18. Photo made Monday, May 23, 2022. Kim Brent/The Enterprise

Members of Luis Torres' family gather outside Judge Stevens' courtroom for the sentencing of Luis Torres Monday. Instead, Torres withdrew his guilty plea entered April 19, and a trial date was set for July 18. Photo made Monday, May 23, 2022. Kim Brent/The Enterprise

A Port Arthur man accused of being an underaged, intoxicated wrong-way driver apologized to his mother on the phone in the hospital shortly after the 2020 fatal head-on-collision with two Beaumont police officers.

A state trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety, who testified on Thursday, was at the hospital with 18-year-old Luis Torres during the conversation, which was captured on video and translated. Torres, now 20, has been charged with the second-degree felony of intoxication manslaughter in connection with the death of Ofc. Sheena Yarbrough-Powell in the Aug. 9, 2020 crash. 

The third day of testimony resumed Thursday morning.

“I know you told me so many times, I am sorry for not listening,” the trooper said, reading a transcript of Torres's words.

Related: Troopers testify about minutes after fatal 2020 police officer crash

The trooper believes the family was aware that Torres had previously decided to drink and drive. The trooper testified that he also found social media video of Torres drinking alcohol in the hours before the crash, which also critically injured the late officer's now-recovered law enforcement partner Ofc. Gabriel Fells.

The state presented photographic evidence allegedly depicting Torres with a margarita in an image with a caption that the trooper said translated to “Here getting wasted” and another with a straw drinking bourbon that were allegedly taken at a now-close Port Arthur restaurant on the night of August 8, 2020.

Another social media post shows Torres allegedly pouring two bottles of liquor into a glass with a caption that the trooper said translated to “When they ask me how I spend my free time.”

But Torres's defense attorney says that doesn't necessarily paint the picture being alleged.

The defense, in a battle for the now 20-year-old’s freedom, argued that the trooper assumed about Torres’s conversation with the family and that they may not have warned him specifically about driving while intoxicated. He also asks questions about the social media posts, which the trooper argued confidently were made by Torres.

A woman testified on Thursday that Torres was at her apartment before the crash. She had never met Torres before and was unaware he was underage. The woman said he dropped a glass bottle of beer and appeared too intoxicated to drive. She and others tried to convince him to stay, but he insisted that he was OK to drive and had to leave for work in the morning. A friend, who Torres had attended the party with was going to follow him home, but Torres had left the apartment before he could, the woman said.

The state began the morning with the testimony of a crime scene technician and sensitive photographic evidence from the scene.

Forensic Pathologist Dr. Ray Fernandez testified that the autopsy results showed Yarbrough-Powell died from blunt force head trauma in the crash that occurred at about 2:30 a.m.

The 23-year-old, who the jury previously watched on body camera footage smiling and laughing while holding an abandoned kitten in the SUV moments before the crash, was unrecognizable in the graphic autopsy photographs.

The photographs presented to the jury showed Yarbrough-Powell's face disfigured and numerous fractures, including to her head, face, chest, arms, fingers and legs.

However, Fernandez said while her heartbeat may have continued, she had no brain activity. So, she likely didn't suffer.

Both the medical doctor and a previously-called DPS trooper testified that a seatbelt would not have saved Yarbrough-Powell.

The state announced rested its case at the end of the day Thursday. The trial is set to resume Friday morning.

Meagan Ellsworth is the public safety, breaking news and general assignment reporter for the Beaumont Enterprise.