A 26-year-old Odessa man was arrested on intoxication manslaughter charges relating to his accused role in a Valentine’s Day wreck in West Odessa that killed a couple married for nearly 49-years as they returned home from a date at a bingo hall.

Ismael Hernandes Camacho, 4885 E. Hammett Drive, was arrested about two hours after the wreck that happened at 11:05 p.m. Friday at Knox Avenue and West Third Street, according to records of the Ector County Detention Center. Camacho remained at the jail Monday facing two counts of intoxication manslaughter and a $200,000 bond.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reported 75-year-old Ramon Mendoza and 72-year-old Carmen Hernandez Mendoza were driving west on Third Street in a Buick Century when Camacho failed to stop his 1997 Ford F-350 at a stop sign on Knox Avenue and struck the Buick’s passenger side.

Ramon Mendoza was not wearing a seatbelt, the DPS reported. But Carmen Hernandez Mendoza, who was reportedly riding as a passenger, was wearing a seatbelt, the release stated. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their eldest granddaughter Leticia Ramos said Monday the couple was returning home from a date VFW Post 4372 Bingo Hall on Andrews Highway. They were avid players.

Camacho was reportedly treated for unspecified injuries at the scene by emergency responders. Public records show he was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2011.

“We’re hoping justice is served,” Ramos said Monday. “It’s going to be hurtful for his family as well if he has children or a wife, but we lost the pillars of our family. We are shaken to the core. They are gone.”

Trooper Elena Viramontes, The DPS spokeswoman in Midland, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The Mendozas were married in November of 1965, according to an obituary for the couple distributed by Acres West Funeral Chapel.

The couple had two sons, six daughters, twenty-six grandchildren and twenty-one great grandchildren, according to the obituary.

The Mendozas were former field workers, Ramos said, enjoying retirement “on their little ranch” on Sir Barton Avenue in West Odessa. There, the couple kept animals and grew food for themselves — Carmen Mendoza trained a baby goat to knock on the door when it was hungry and Ramon Mendoza grew tomatoes and other vegetables.

They also enjoyed spending time with their family, and they were looking forward to meeting their newest great-grandchild, Dominic Villalobos, who was born three weeks ago in Midland, their granddaughter said.

Ramos said the nearly three dozen Mendoza children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have gathered in Odessa to plan for funeral, scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

By Monday, she said many had also visited the scene where they died, planning to put up a memorial cross. They also discussed safety at the intersection, where Ramos said there is a lack of visibility and a need for a four-way-stop.

“We are all broken,” Ramos said. “But we were consoled in the fact that they loved each other so much that they went together.”