Francisco Oropeza, center, is escorted to the San Jacinto County courthouse by San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, right, for a hearing Thursday, May 18, 2023, in Coldspring, Texas. Oropeza is suspected of killing five people, including a 9-year-old boy, after neighbors asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
A man, who allegedly killed five people in the defendant’s violently petty refusal to stop firing his AR-style rifle, has been indicted for capital murder, according The Associated Press and local outlets out of San Jacinto, Texas.
Under these allegations, Francisco Oropeza, 38, was out on his property opening fire the night of April 28. Neighbors asked him to stop; a baby was trying to sleep. The defendant allegedly refused.
“He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted,” Wilson Garcia said, according to KHOU.
Twenty minutes later, Oropeza allegedly carried his rifle up the neighbor’s driveway. Garcia’s wife, Sonia Argentina Guzmán Taibot, 28, was the first to die. Oropeza allegedly stole the lives of four others, including a child:
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- Daniel Enrique Lazo Guzmán, 9.
- Josué Jonatan Cáceres, 18.
- Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 21
- Obdulia Molina Rivera, 31.
Fifteen people were reportedly at the residence. Some of them were Guzmán friends, there to join her on a church retreat. Garcia said it seemed like Oropeza wanted to kill everyone at the home.
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The suspect, a Mexican national who was reportedly deported before multiple times and allegedly once threatened to kill another neighbor’s dog, was at large for four days. Authorities found him hiding under laundry in a closet at his aunt’s home, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said, according to KHOU. Oropeza’s domestic partner, Divimara Lamar Nava, 52, and friend Domingo Castilla-Castillo are accused having helped him flee.
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