Police say Francisco Oropeza stormed into his neighbor’s house on April 28, 2023, after being asked to stop firing his gun late at night.
COLDSPRING, Texas — A man accused of killing five people in Texas in 2023 after a neighbor complained that he was keeping a baby awake by firing a gun in his yard late at night pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder charges and will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a prosecutor said.
Francisco Oropeza, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to capital murder of multiple persons as part of a deal to avoid a possible death sentence, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon told The Associated Press. Oropeza was offered the deal after prosecutors had lengthy discussions with family members of the victims, he said.
U.S. immigration officials said Oropeza had been deported four times between 2009 and 2016. But Dillon said he will spend the rest of his life behind bars in Texas.
“He is not eligible for deportation. He is not eligible for anything,” Dillon said. “He will stay in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until he breathes his last breath.”
Oropeza entered the pleas Wednesday after listening to emotional testimony from family members of the victims, Dillon said.
Oropeza’s attorney, Anthony Osso Sr., didn’t immediately respond to a Wednesday phone message seeking comment. He previously said that tension between Oropeza and his neighbors had been building for quite some time.
Police say Oropeza stormed into his neighbor’s house on April 28, 2023, after being asked to stop firing his gun late at night. All five victims, including a 9-year-old boy, were from Honduras. The baby wasn’t harmed.
The shooting happened in the rural town of Cleveland, about 45 miles north of Houston. Police say Oropeza fled the neighborhood after the shooting, setting off an intense search. He was was eventually arrested near Conroe, roughly 20 miles from the crime scene.
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Gaston County Mugshots
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Randolph County Recent Arrests
DATE: 01-25-25
CHARGES: POSSESSION OF METHAMPHETAMINE, POSSESSION OF PARAPHERNALIA
AGENCY: WINCHESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT
DATE: 01-14-25
CHARGES: BATTERY WITH INJURY X2, DOMESTIC BATTERY X2
AGENCY: RANDOLPH COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT
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2025.1.28 Local Florida police officer nabs one of FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives
A local Florida police officer apprehended a man on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list during a routine traffic stop over the weekend, earning praise from the federal agency.
Sgt. Michelle Bilbrey arrested Donald Eugene Fields II, 60, around 9:15 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of U.S. Highway 27/441 and Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake, the Lady Lake Police Department said in a news release.
Fields, who is facing federal charges of child sex trafficking and state charges of child rape, was apprehended after Bilbrey ran his vehicle’s license plate and discovered that it was not registered to the car he was driving, police said.
Field was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in May 2023.
He has been a fugitive since March 2022 after failing to appear for a court hearing in Franklin County, Missouri, where he faces state charges that include statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation and witness tampering, according to police and the FBI.
Fields was also federally indicted in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 2023, for attempting to recruit and exploit a minor for commercial sex acts between January 2013 and June 2017, authorities said.
Following his arrest, Fields will be scheduled to make his first court appearance in federal court in Florida.
A Rossville woman has been sentenced to serve 10 years in prison after being convicted of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.
The Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District’s Attorney’s Office secured the conviction on Jan. 15 of Samantha Shea Leamon of 122 Ann Dr.
On April 11, 2024 officers from Department of Community Supervision, Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation West Metro Drug Enforcement Office visited probationer Leamon at her residence. Ms. Leamon had 3.642 grams of fentanyl powder, along with her state-issued identification card in a bag in her bathroom.
A trial was held from Jan. 14-15, and Ms. Leamon was convicted by a jury of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute. Chief Judge Brian M. House sentenced Ms. Leamon to serve 10 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections, followed by 20 years on probation.
The case was presented by Senior Assistant District Attorney Beth Evans, with assistance from Chief Investigator Christy Smith and Administrative Assistants Rachel Moon and Jennifer Jackson. The case was investigated by Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Chris Lyons, with assistance from GBI Special Agent Stephen Pendergrass and DCS Officer Alex Barbee.
Ms. Leamon was on probation for possession of clonazolam.
District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller praised the work of the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office, DCS and the GBI, saying, “We have dedicated public servants at all of our sheriff’s offices, at probation and with the GBI – we always appreciate their hard work on fentanyl cases. We have lost far too many lives to fentanyl. So let this conviction be a warning: if you intend to deal this deadly poison, we will find you and we will bring you to justice.”
His office said, “Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid responsible for a significant number of overdose deaths in the four counties of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and the United States.”
2025.1.27 MTA blasts court system after woman shoved into moving NYC subway train by homeless man who was free despite facing sex abuse, trespassing charges
MTA officials bashed the court system after a vagrant with two open cases was “turned loose” last month – only to be arrested again Monday for allegedly throwing a female straphanger into an incoming Manhattan train.
Markeese Brazelis, 26, who already has sex abuse and trespassing cases hanging over his head, is accused of pushing a 23-year-old woman into a moving A train in a random Monday morning attack.
The victim struck the train and fell back onto the platform, causing bruises to her face, hands, knees and shoulder. She is expected to survive, law enforcement sources said.
Michael Kemper, the MTA’s chief security officer, was outraged that Brazelis was walking the streets after two recent run-ins with police.
“It’s beyond comprehension how this menace can be arrested two different times … only to be turned loose to cause more mayhem,” Kemper said in a statement Monday.
“When will the courthouses get the message? This can’t continue.”
The shocking attack played out at the 175th Street station shortly after 9 a.m. when Brazelis allegedly pushed the unsuspecting victim into the train as it pulled in.
The woman was struck by the train and fell back onto the platform. She was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Brazelis was nabbed by cops at the 181st Street station after alert bystanders took photos of the perp and showed them to cops who arrived.
He was charged with assault and first-degree reckless endangerment in the unprovoked attack, the NYPD said.
Brazelis also has at least two prior arrests — including a Jan. 19 bust for entering the prohibited area of a Bergen Street subway station, according to sources.
He was charged with trespassing in Kings County Criminal Court and released without bail on Jan. 22, court records show.
On Dec. 21, he was also charged with third-degree sexual abuse in Manhattan for allegedly groping a woman on a C train at West 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, records show.
He was released without bail that time too.
The incident is just the latest in a series of troubling Big Apple transit attacks in recent weeks.
On Sunday morning, a 25-year-old straphanger was stabbed multiple times on a Bronx subway train, with the suspect still on the loose, police said.
On Friday, a 66-year-old woman was slammed in the head with a golf club at a Financial District station, leaving her with a gash, and the brute still free.
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