Previously Deported Accused Killer of 5 Honduran Migrants Appears in Texas Court

COLDSPRING, Texas — The four-time deported Mexican national accused of murdering five of his neighbors appeared in a Texas court on Thursday. The man stands accused in the “execution-style” deaths of the five Honduran migrants — including an eight-year-old child.

Francisco Oropesa appeared on Wednesday morning before 411th District Court John Wells for a hearing on the status of the case. The accused killer is being held on a $7.5 million bond set previously by Judge Wells.

A large contingent of San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office deputies escorted the suspect to provide security for the hearing and the suspect. The law enforcement team included Sheriff Greg Capers who escorted the prisoner in and out of the courthouse.

Defense counsel Anthony Osso and Lisa Andrews ask San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon when they could expect discovery evidence so they can begin the detailed process of preparing Mr. Oropesa’s defense.

“You heard they (prosecutors) have 225 body-worn cameras (to review,), Osso told Breitbart Texas after exiting the courtroom. “Every officer involved in the investigation is obligated to record their involvement.”
“We obviously need to hone in on the actual crime scene itself and look at the evidence and see what it tells us,” Osso explained.

Co-counsel Andrews explained the district attorney’s office is still in the process of gathering and compiling the evidence. “We’re doing our own investigation and we need access to the discovery evidence.”

The defense team and DA Dillon worked through a timeline for when the San Jacinto County grand jury would hear evidence to return an indictment. The grand jury meets once a month in this rural Texas community.

Outside the courthouse in Coldspring, DA Dillon told reporters, “There is a lot of evidence that was generated about this.”

Both sides said they expect the grand jury to hear the evidence in the case in June or July. Judge Wells set the next court date for August 10.

Sheriff Capers previously told Breitbart Texas that a team of U.S. Marshal deputies, Texas Department of Public Safety CID agents, and Border Patrol’s elite BORTAC agents found Francisco Oropesa near Cut & Shoot early Tuesday evening. The arrest brought to an end, the four-day manhunt for the four-time deported Mexican national.

The search for the man accused of murdering four of his neighbors, all Honduran migrants, began on Saturday morning when San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived on the scene of the mass-casualty murder. Sheriff Capers told Breitbart in a phone interview Tuesday morning that his deputies arrived on the scene in less than 11 minutes.

ICE officials previously confirmed to Breitbart Texas that the man charged with the murders of the five Honduran migrants living next door to his house in Cleveland, Texas, is also a previously deported Mexican national with a criminal history in Texas.

Officials report that an immigration judge first ordered Francisco Oropeza Perez-Torres, 38, to be removed from the United States on March 19, 2009. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers deported the migrant to Mexico later that month.

Subsequent to this, Oropeza illegally re-entered the U.S. and was removed, once again, in September 2009. He was removed two more times in January 2012 and July 2016.

In January 2012, a Texas court in Montgomery County (which neighbors San Jacinto County where the alleged murders took place) convicted the Mexican national of driving while intoxicated. The court sentenced him to an unreported period of incarceration.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.