SAN JACINTO COUNTY, TX- At 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 28, 2023, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting multiple shootings on Walter Road in the Trails End Subdivision in south San Jacinto County. Patrol Units arrived on the scene to find one man shot, a woman in the front door shot, an 8-year-old boy shot, and two women in a bedroom shot. Those women were laying across three small children as if to try to protect them from the shooter.
Four of the victims died at the scene. A fifth was transported by air ambulance but died at the hospital. Additionally, three small children, covered in blood were transported to the hospital. Exams determined the blood was from the women that were lying over them and they had no injuries.
According to San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers, all the victims were shot execution-style. All 10 people in the house were from Honduras. Investigators learned the next-door neighbor, 38-year-old Mexican National Francisco Oropeza, was firing his AR-15 in the front yard. The yards are only about a quarter acre each. The neighbor came to the fence and told Oropeza they had a new baby and asked if he could refrain from the shooting, which was disturbing the infant. Oropeza stopped and went inside. A short time later, he reappeared and began killing people.
Capers said they had been called to his home numerous times for the same issue, which was firing the loud gun in his small yard. When Deputies arrived the night of the murders, they were unsure if the suspect was back at his home, lying in wait. Capers called Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for help. As SWAT was enroute, units from Texas Department of Public Safety, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, and North Montgomery County Fire Department responded.
Swat arrived on the scene, and after securing a search warrant, made entry but found the suspect was not home. They believed he may have left the area. The Texas Rangers also became involved and assisted in the investigation.
Capers identified the five people killed as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
For the past several months the San Jacinto District Attorney’s Office has been working on the case gathering evidence, and statements and preparing the case against Francisco Oropeza. First Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer said it is very time-consuming considering the number of agencies involved and reports written. In addition, gathering news media footage and reports on the victims. He said, “This is a daily grind for us, to work on a case as serious as this one. They don’t get much bigger than this.”
First Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer was in Judge Wells’s Court Thursday morning with Oropeza and his attorney. Freyer announced that the District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty in the case. After several motions were filed, Oropeza was led out of the courtroom under extremely heavy guard. His next appearance will be on April 18, 2024.
After Thursday’s hearing, Freyer met with the families of the victims. “My main objective in dealing with families in this case and any other case is to make sure they are aware of scheduling, what the range of punishment is, and where the case is headed,” Freter said.
Also on Thursday morning, they dealt with motion hearings on Robert Dale Clary, who was arrested in connection to the murder of 59-year-old Rhonda Richardson found in the Sam Houston National Forest in 2019. Richardson was a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison guard. Authorities say Richardson’s body was discovered near her home by two people riding an ATV on a trail in a wooded area of the National Forest on May 22, 2019. Clary was one of those people, but he never notified law enforcement. Officials say he told his family, and asked his nephew to call it in, saying that if he called, he would be considered a suspect since he lived nearby and knew her.
Clary even returned to the scene with his nephew and took photos of the body. Police were finally notified of the dead body by Clary’s nephew. Investigators said Richardson had multiple slashes on her body and blunt-force trauma to her head and face and had been lying dead in the heat for several days. What made detectives think it was a murder, and possibly connected to where she worked, was that she still had her jewelry on. Richardson worked at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
TDCJ investigated the prison system to determine if she had been considered a target and they found nothing. Officials said Richardson had been with TDCJ for 25 years and had already announced her plan to retire a few months later.
Officials learned a few days before Richardson was found dead, she asked neighbors to help look for her missing dogs. Clary was one of the neighbors who volunteered to help her search. Investigators say he was the last person seen with Richardson alive.
After talking to other people in the area, investigators learned Richardson was seen on Clary’s ATV with him. Investigators obtained search warrants for Clary’s residence. Items from the home, including his ATV and a rug backing, were taken to a crime lab in Montgomery County for analysis.
Detective Gary Sharpen dug into Clary’s past and found He had five prior DWI cases and had served time in TDCJ prisons. June of 1990, November of 1991, June of 1992, and in 1994 also in June of 2003.
Harris County Prosecutor Kelly Siegler, host of the “Cold Justice” television show joined in on the case. With ongoing technological advancements, forensics experts wanted to review previous evidence. They took Richardson’s cell phone coordinates and traced them to the last location, which was almost exactly where she was found. Then, they did the same for Clary’s phone, and his phone coordinates put him very close to where her last coordinate was located. With this evidence, Detective Sharpen secured an arrest warrant and placed Clary in the San Jacinto County Jail.
Also in court on Thursday were Thorn Keeper, and his Father Daniel Keeper, who were accused of the murder of 18-year-old Onalaska resident Katelyn Michelle Brandon. Her body was found in the 100 block of Ellis Road in Coldspring on December 28, 2022. She suffered several stab wounds to the back, the neck, and shoulder blades. Brandon lived at the Ellis Street location off and on with Thorn Keeper.
