A Dallas man allegedly confessed to killing and hitting a pedestrian while drunk, then fleeing the scene with the victim’s bloody dismembered arm on his passenger seat.
Juan Morgan Munoz, 31, was arrested at 1:30 a.m. on June 14, 2024, and is now facing felony charges after a hit-and-run with an unidentified victim at the intersection of Storey Lane and the I-35E highway.
After the crash, Munoz allegedly drove his white BMW to his job at an auto body shop about a mile away. He then waited 30 minutes before calling 911 to alert authorities, all while the severed body part sat in his car.
Munoz admitted to drinking tequila at Hooters restaurant in Grand Prairie earlier that day, adding that he had “one Patron shot in the afternoon,” according to his arrest affidavit obtained by local station WFFA.
He stated that he didn’t take prescription or illegal drugs, and when asked to rate himself on a scale of 0-10 (zero being sober), he gave himself a “2 or 3” and said he felt safe to drive. He failed all sobriety tests. When given a breathalyzer test, his reading allegedly came back at .179, more than twice the legal limit.
When police arrived at Maaco Auto Body Shop, they noted Munoz was glassy-eyed, reeking of alcohol, and slurring his speech, according to his arrest affidavit. His car had a huge “hole in the front passenger windshield”, and police eventually made the gruesome discovery of “an entire arm on the front passenger seat,” along with blood.
Munoz was taken into custody on charges of felony DWI and collision involving death. The Dallas Police Department confirmed to People magazine that additional charges are possible.
Before being booked into jail, Munoz reportedly informed detention officers that he had cocaine in his system. He already has two prior DWI convictions, according to WFFA. He pled guilty to a 2018 New Hampshire charge and was reportedly on probation for the second 2023 charge in Fort Worth when this crash occurred.
In addition to the felony charges against Munoz, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating if the alcohol involved was served in violation of state law. Serving alcohol to a person who appears intoxicated is a public safety violation with financial penalties.
Every day, about 37 people in the U.S. die in drunk driving crashes, and Texas has some of the most dangerous drivers in the country, ranking third out of all the states for worst drivers, according to a recent Forbes Advisor study. It also has the second-highest number of drunk drivers involved in fatal car accidents (8.32 per 100,000 licensed drivers).
