A state district judge rejected a plea bargain Wednesday morning that would have placed a vision-impaired motorist on deferred probation in the December traffic death of motorcyclist Richard Craig Schroeder.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court said he would not accept the plea deal in the manslaughter case involving 39-year-old Trena Evette Mitchell, who is legally blind.

Mitchell, after consulting with her attorney, Phil Martinez, withdrew her guilty plea. The judge set an Aug. 17 trial date.

Trena Evette Mitchell will go to trial Aug. 17 for a collision she had with a motorcycle while driving. Mitchell is legally blind.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

“After reviewing the presentence report, I just felt this was one that needed to go to trial,” Strother said after the brief hearing, which the judge moved up after learning that more than 1,000 motorcyclists planned to ride to Waco to show support for Schroeder.

The judge said he changed the date of the hearing to avoid “a spectacle.”

Strother’s office has been inundated with more than 1,300 letters from motorcycle enthusiasts who urged him not to place Mitchell on deferred probation, as recommended by prosecutor Hilary LaBorde, when Mitchell pleaded guilty May 17.

Mitchell, who has no driver’s license and has been cited at least twice before for driving without one, had four children in the car with her when she turned in front of Schroeder’s motorcycle at Martin Luther King Boulevard and East Lake Shore Drive.

Two of the children were injured, one severely. Prosecutors also have charged Mitchell with injury to a child.

Schroeder, known to his biker friends as “Hat Trick,” was on a charitable mission that morning, rounding up toys to give children whose parents are in prison.

His wife, Michelle Schroeder, attended Wednesday’s hearing but declined comment afterward.

Before recessing the hearing, Strother wanted to make sure Mitchell was not driving anymore and placed that restriction on her as a condition of her continued bond.

Martinez assured the judge that Mitchell has not driven since the incident with Schroeder, despite what he called false reports that she had been seen driving since then in the Waco area.

Mitchell and her husband moved out of McLennan County because of persistent and threatening phone calls and harassing letters, Martinez said, adding that whoever those reports were about, it wasn’t Mitchell.

LaBorde, who also has heard from motorcyclists since offering Mitchell deferred probation, said she understands that there are very strong emotions running through the case.

“I believe the probation department did a good job doing their presentence investigation, and I believe the judge did what he believed to be the right thing,” LaBorde said. “The prosecution doesn’t get to talk to the defendant before we make a recommendation, and I think that had a lot to do with today’s decision.”

Paul Landers, a 53-year-old chef from Georgetown, serves as lieutenant national commander of the US Defenders, a motorcycle rights activist group. He said Wednesday he is responsible for putting out the “call to action” among his fellow riders to write letters to the court that denounced the deferred plea offer.

“I think it is a little premature to be doing high-fives,” he said of Strother’s decision. “I am glad that the judge did his job and at least is looking at the law. We asked him in the letters what he would do if it was his son or daughter. Would this plea bargain fit the crime? I don’t think so.

“We are not after this woman. This is not a personal attack,” Landers said. “But as motorcycle riders, we don’t want to be treated as a subculture or a different demographic group. We are just asking for the same rights as people who drive automobiles.”

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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