Woman guilty in crash that killed officer
A Brazoria County jury took less than two hours Tuesday to convict a Clear Lake woman of intoxication manslaughter in a June 2016 wreck that killed a Pearland police officer.
Amber Willemsen, 40, a former assistant principal in Clear Creek ISD, was out on bail on a drug charge when her Chrysler 200 sedan was involved in the crash on FM 518 near Liberty Drive that killed officer Endy Ekpanya on June 12, 2016.
“Endy Ekpanya took the hit for another citizen who was coming behind him,” Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne said during her closing argument Tuesday. “In his final act, he was protecting and serving.”
Yenne played a dispatch recording of the last call for service before Ekpanya was killed. “He couldn’t answer that final call, but you, the jury, can by finding Amber Willemsen guilty.”
Willemsen worked a shift as as tripper at The Ritz in Houston on the night of June 11 and 12 and was leaving work when she drove her car on the wrong side of FM 518, crashing nearly head-on into Ekpanya’s patrol car.
Jurors in the trial, held in the courtroom of District Judge Terri Tipton Holder, watched videos of Willemsen taking numerous sips of what appeared to be vodka in a water bottle that she brought into the strip club.
Prosecutors also presented video evidence that Willemsen was stumbling at work, saying she was visibly drunk, and a blood test showed her blood-alcohol concentration was 0.162, more than twice the legal limit, when her car struck Ekpanya’s.
Ekpanya, 30, had been en route to a non-emergency call when the wreck occurred at 2500 Broadway and Liberty. He was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
He left his wife, Lucy Lugo, and their son, Julian, who was 2 years old when his father died.
Ekpanya had worked for the police department for less than a year.
Hundreds gathered last June to remember him at Grace Community Church, where they described him as an officer with integrity.