ORANGE, Texas — Two families are remembering their loved ones three years after tragedy struck their lives.
On June 13, 2020, Jillian Blanchard and Robert Jackson were both killed on the same night by intoxicated driver, Jerrod Lee Watkins, of Orange.
On August 29, 2022, Watkins was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to the two intoxication manslaughter deaths of Jackson and Blanchard.
He pleaded guilty to all three charges, although he was only on trial for one manslaughter charge in August 2022.
Watkins will receive 20 years on each. The two manslaughter cases will run consecutively, but the Jackson cases will run concurrently, according to Defense Attorney Ryan Gertz.
Jillian Blanchard's father, Jacob Blanchard, remembers the night his daughter died, vividly.
"We see cops in the street, we walk outside to see what's going on. The cops walked up my driveway and proceeded to tell me and my wife that my daughter had been killed by a drunk driver," Jacob Blanchard said.
The family keeps Jillian Blanchard's memory alive in more ways than one. She has her own bench at Port Neches Riverfront Park and the family also created acts of kindness cards
"Through M.A.D.D., we do what's called a victim's impact panel where I get in front of a group of convicted drunk drivers and we tell our story and hopes that another family doesn't have to go through the tragedies because the heartbreak that this brings it's unbearable," Jacob Blanchard said.
And in Orange, Robert Jackson's wife Mandi Jackson, strives to keep his memory alive by teaching others how her husband lived
"Do what he would've taught, he taught a lot about forgiveness," Mandi Jackson said. "I always said going through this, that this is what I hope my experience would teach people, was that we're human and that life isn't easy."
Mandi Jackson says the hardest part about the death of her husband was how long it took for justice to be served
"The accident that took his life wasn't the hardest part, it was what came after every day after two-and-a-half years," Mandi Jackson said.
Robert Jackson, 45, was riding a bicycle in the 200 block of Ferry Drive when he was struck and killed on June 13, 2020.
Not long after Robert Jackson was struck and about six miles away, police say Watkins was involved in a head-on wreck that killed Jillian Blanchard, 20.
Police were initially called to the scene of that fatal wreck at about 3:06 a.m. in the 4000 block of FM 1442 near Bessie Heights Road.
Four minutes later, at 3:10 a.m., officers learned that Robert Jackson had been struck by a vehicle in the 200 block of Ferry Drive. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
At the scene of Jillian Blanchard's death Watkins “was immediately identified as the driver of the pickup, as he was still inside the truck at the time officers arrived on the scene,” according to an October 2020 Bridge City Police Department news release.
Nearly four months later, in October 2020, Watkins was charged with intoxication manslaughter in Jillian Blanchard's death. He was not charged in Robert Jackson's death until August 2021, more than a year after the deaths.
The crashes and the subsequent investigation led to continued cries for justice from the victims' families and the community until Watkins was charged in both cases.
Family members of Jillian Blanchard along with family members of Robert Jackson contended from the beginning that the two incidents were related and held a protest at the Bridge City Police Department in August 2020 saying that police had not been forthcoming in the investigation.
Mandi Jackson, appeared before the Bridge City city council in April 2021, and made an impassioned plea to officials for justice in her husband's death.
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