UTSA star Joshua Cephus was glassy-eyed, smelled of alcohol after crash, records show.

July 20, 2023
Updated: July 20, 2023 2:35 p.m.
Joshua Cephus, a wide receiver for the University of Texas at San Antonio, had glassy, bloodshot eyes, his speech was slurred and his breath smelled strongly of alcohol after he rolled his car near the campus in December, court records show.
Cephus was suspended from the UTSA football team after the Dec. 9 accident and missed the Roadrunners' final game of the season, the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
San Antonio police obtained a warrant for Cephus' arrest in late June after receiving results of a lab analysis of a blood sample he provided nearly two hours after the accident. It showed that his blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, was 0.15 or higher, twice the legal limit, court records show.
Cephus was booked July 10 on a charge of driving while intoxicated. He was released after posting $1,500 bond.
An SAPD case report and the arrest affidavit contain new details about the incident.
The athlete rolled his silver 2009 Nissan Maxima at 3:25 a.m. on Dec. 9 near UTSA's main campus, at the intersection of Babcock Road and UTSA Boulevard.
When police responded to the crash, Cephus, then 21, was cooperative but his balance was unsteady and he could not say what time it was, the records show.
"Defendant had red and bloodshot eyes, defendant had slurred speech and defendant's breath had a strong odor of intoxicants," according to the affidavit.
He told police he was coming from Privat Social Club, about 3 miles from the site of the crash. There was one passenger in the car, former UTSA football walk-on Emmanuel Odetola.
Cephus told police he was driving south on Babcock and tried to turn left at a green light when he “lost control of his vehicle and proceeded to roll his vehicle over, coming to a rest at a nearby light post.”
Multiple air bags deployed during the crash. Cephus “was bleeding from his hand slightly,” but he declined emergency medical assistance at the scene, records show. Odetola was not injured.
Cephus told an SAPD officer he drank two shots of either Ciroc Vodka or Don Julio Tequila and had stopped drinking an hour before the accident.
Asked to rate his sobriety on a scale of one to 10, with “one being sober and 10 being the drunkest he had ever been,” Cephus responded that he was a “5 or less,” according to the SAPD case report.
The officer asked Cephus “if he felt that he could make it home in the listed vehicle and (Cephus) stated that he could.”
Cephus was not allowed to drive home. Instead, police brought him to the central magistrate's office in downtown San Antonio.
Cephus twice declined to perform field sobriety tests but he voluntarily provided a breath specimen and later a blood sample, the records show. The sample was drawn at 5:13 a.m. Dec. 9, nearly two hours after the accident, according to the records.
Driving with a BAC above 0.08, the threshold for DWI, typically is charged as a Class B misdemeanor for a first-time offender. But driving with a BAC above 0.15, a level often described as "extreme intoxication," is a Class A misdemeanor with stiffer penalties, even for a first offense. Cephus was booked on the latter charge.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 9.
Under the Texas Penal Code, a Class B misdemeanor is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,000. Someone convicted of a Class A misdemeanor DWI faces up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $6,000 and the loss of driving privileges for up to two years.
As a condition of his release, a Bexar County judge barred Cephus from drinking alcohol. He also was required to have an ignition interlock device installed on his vehicle within 15 days, or to abstain from driving and blow into a portable alcohol monitoring device four times per day.
Asked for comment last week on whether the charge would affect Cephus' status with the football team, UTSA noted in a statement that he was suspended immediately after the crash.
Cephus "was permitted to return to team activities in January following completion of the terms of his suspension,” the statement said. “It would be up to a student conduct committee to determine if any further action is warranted.”
A senior who arrived at UTSA in 2019 out of Spring Dekaney High School in Harris County, Cephus had 87 catches for 985 yards and six touchdowns last season. He is slated to return to the Roadrunners for his final year of eligibility in 2023 but did not participate in UTSA’s spring practice due to a knee injury.
UTSA coach Jeff Traylor has publicly supported Cephus in the months since the crash. Early this month, he posted on Twitter a video clip of Cephus scoring a touchdown and added: “This man can run through a tackle and block on perimeter as good as anyone in the game. Wears number 2 for a reason!!”
Under Traylor, the Roadrunners have awarded single-digit jersey numbers to team leaders who best embody the program’s culture.
In May, Traylor shared a link to a podcast interview with Cephus, adding this comment: “If you ever want to know why we have won so many games the last 3 years just listen to (Cephus).”