Guardsman pleads guilty to causing fatal McAllen crash while on border mission
A 28-year-old Georgia National Guard soldier who drove drunk and caused a crash that killed her passenger in 2022 pleaded guilty Friday.
Bianca Farmer pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter for the death of Spc. Nashyra S. Whitaker, 23, and is scheduled for sentencing in March, court records show.
Hidalgo County District Attorney Toribio “Terry” Palacios said the court is currently conducting a pre-sentence investigation.
At 2:24 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2021, McAllen police found a silver Ford F-150 with “major damage” to the front left side near a wooden pole and debris on the roadway in the 100 block of North 23rd Street, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Officers spoke with Farmer who said she had one drink at “The Gallery” in the downtown bar district and was driving to a Hampton Inn hotel when the crash occurred.
Police detected a strong odor of alcohol from Farmer, according to the affidavit.
“Mrs. Farmer (said) that she had been traveling north bound on 23rd street when someone cut her off which caused her to swerve,” a probable cause affidavit said.
Whitaker was sitting in the left side of the backseat of the truck and sustained major injuries to her head and one of her arms. She was pronounced dead at 3:52 a.m.
Farmer’s other passenger, Claude Berry Cecil, who was also with the Georgia National Guard, sustained serious bodily injury resulting in his right arm being amputated.
Whitaker was later identified as a Louisiana Army National Guard soldier.
After the crash, the Army Times reported that both Farmer and Berry were with the Georgia National Guard and that they and Whitaker were in the Rio Grande Valley because they were assigned to a federalized National Guard border mission.
On Sept. 8, 2021, Farmer bailed out of the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on $190,000 in bonds before being arrested again in 2025 after failing to appear for a hearing.
She is scheduled to be sentenced on March 16.
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