Texas massacre suspect charged with 5 counts of murder as investigators say his longtime partner gave him food and clothes while on the run

Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Holly Yan, Josh Campbell and Mark Morales
CNN
Wed, 03 May 2023 17:15 UTC

© Eva Gutierrez

Francisco Oropesa, shown in a video screengrab taken by a witness, was taken into custody Tuesday evening.

The longtime partner of a man accused of gunning down five people, including a 9-year-old, in a neighboring Texas home seemed to be cooperating with authorities - but was actually helping the suspect evade them during a dayslong manhunt, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The suspected gunman, Mexican national Francisco Oropesa, was caught Tuesday and has been charged with five counts of murder after the mass shooting Friday night, authorities said.

Oropesa, 38, said very little while the charges were read to him Wednesday in the San Jacinto County jail. Through an interpreter, "He basically said, 'I see, I see, I see,'" County Justice of the Peace Randy Ellisor said.

Bond was set at $1.5 million for each count, for a total of $7.5 million, Ellisor said.

Oropesa remained at the county jail Wednesday afternoon. He does not currently have an attorney, but paperwork is being filled out for him to get one, Ellisor said.

Oropesa's charges could be upgraded capital murder - a death penalty offense in Texas, a source in the district attorney's office told CNN.

Authorities also released new information Wednesday about two other people who were arrested in connection with the case.

Oropesa's longtime partner, Divimara Lamar Nava, faces a charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, a third-degree felony, online sheriff's records show.

"Ms. Nava appeared to be cooperating up until the time that we arrested her," San Jacinto County Criminal District Attorney Todd Dillon said. However, "what we believe that Ms. Nava was doing is that she was providing him with material aid and encouragement, food, clothes, and had arranged transport to this house."

The DA, like other officials, has referred to Nava as the suspected killer's "wife," though public records suggest she is not married. "I don't know if it's common-law (marriage) or they've actually in fact been married," Dillon said. "But they were living together as husband and wife."

Nava was arrested at the same Montgomery County location where Oropesa was found Tuesday evening hidden in a closet under a pile of laundry, according to case records and San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers. It was not immediately clear if she had an attorney or when her court appearance will be.

Law enforcement had tracked Nava to the home, which was linked to a relative of Oropesa's, a law enforcement source told CNN. That home is about a 20-minute drive west of where the massacre unfolded in Cleveland, a city northwest of Houston.

Another person accused of helping Oropesa, Domingo Castilla, has been arrested and booked into the San Jacinto County jail, Ellisor said.

He was being held on a possession of marijuana charge, and "we expect there to be more charges filed," Dillon said.

The massacre is among more than 180 US mass shootings this year. It also brought attention to the strained resources of rural sheriff's departments.

Comment: Also from CNN:

The man wanted by law enforcement for the killings of five Texas neighbors - including a 9-year-old boy - had entered the US illegally and been deported by immigration officials at least four times, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement source said.

The suspect, identified by ICE as Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres, was first removed by an immigration judge in March 2009, the ICE source told CNN on Monday.

"At an unknown time and location, Perez-Torres unlawfully reentered the United States, and was apprehended and removed several more times by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in September 2009, January 2012, and July 2016," the source said.

Oropesa's current immigration status is unclear, and it is not known how long he had been in the US since he was last deported.
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About 10 to 20 minutes before Friday's massacre, Wilson Garcia and two other men had walked over to Oropesa's yard to ask him to stop shooting so close to their home because their baby was sleeping, Garcia told CNN. They'd asked Oropesa to shoot on the other side of his property, he said.

The suspect refused, and Garcia said he would call police.

"We walked inside and my wife was talking to the police, and we called five times because he was being more threatening," Garcia recalled.

"We saw him, he was leaving his property and cocked his gun," the father said. "I told my wife to get inside because he cocked his gun and he might come threaten us. So my wife said, 'You go inside, I don't think he will fire at me because I'm a woman, I'll stay here at the door.'"

The gunman later came to Garcia's home, shooting his wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, in the doorway before killing three other adults and Garcia's son, Daniel Enrique Laso-Guzman, the grieving father said.

See also: Texas fugitive accused of killing 5 was illegally in US; deported 5 times