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Feb. 25, 2006, 11:08AM
Indictment sought in hunting death
Survivors of an illegal immigrant who died in 2003 want manslaughter charges reinstated


By MARK BABINECK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The district attorney's office in Laredo plans to seek a manslaughter indictment Tuesday against a ranch hand in a fatal hunting accident nearly three years ago in what would be a rare prosecution.

Hunting accidents came into national focus this month when Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally peppered Austin attorney Harry Whittington with birdshot in Kenedy County. The district attorney for that area, Carlos Valdez, said such cases require criminal negligence at a minimum, and he hasn't had one rise to that level in 26 years as a prosecutor.

Officials closed the Cheney case without charges, typical in Texas for hunting accidents. It will be up to a Webb County grand jury to decide if the case of ranch hand Juan Garza Mendoza is different.

"For sure, it was negligence," said Rene Barrientos, the San Antonio attorney who represents the family of 24-year-old Jesus Barrera Vazquez. Barrera died from a rifle wound to the back on the Hurd-Villegas ranch on the evening of June 1, 2003, after Garza said he mistook the illegal immigrant for a feral hog.

Garza's hunting party sped off and Barrera bled to death on the scrubby plains, Barrientos said.

An hour-plus delay in seeking aid and the suspected involvement of alcohol helped spur a civil jury to find Garza and the Hurd-Villegas Ranch where he worked liable, Barrientos said. The sides reached a $20 million settlement, $15 million of which was paid by the insurer of the prominent Webb County ranch.

Money is not enough for Barrera's survivors, Barrientos said. "The family would like (an indictment) to occur, but they know there are lots of issues and it's a different standard" than with a civil lawsuit, Barrientos said. "But we put on a pretty strong case that it was no accident."

Garza initially was indicted on manslaughter charges, a felony that carries a possible 20-year prison sentence, but prosecutors said they withdrew it while the civil lawsuit progressed. His status has been in limbo since.

Garza's defense attorney in Laredo, Oscar Pena Sr., said Barrera's death was a "tragic event," but it was a freak hunting accident and not a crime. Pena said Garza wasn't drinking and that the wide-open spaces contributed to the amount of time it took to notify authorities.

"This happened in an area of the ranch where you would not expect aliens to be," Pena said. "This particular group (of immigrants) for some reason were way off in a really desolate area, far off the highway, far away from the railroad tracks.

"It's a pretty big ranch, they were traveling on dirt roads and it takes some time to get from the scene where this happened to get to a telephone to try to get some help at the ranch house."

Garza's lawyer at his civil trial, Victor Vicinaiz, argued the delay stemmed from his client's panicking after the shooting.

Frayed emotions and tortuous back roads weren't the problem, Barrientos said, adding that recent events show the right way to treat a shooting victim. "In Cheney's case, it is reasonably foreseeable for someone going out bird hunting to be peppered with pellets," Barrientos said. "Everything Cheney's party did was absolutely commendable."

Barrera's death actually marked the second hog-hunting fatality along the border in 2003. Authorities said Jaime Gonzalez shot illegal immigrant Celestino Lopez Espino, 35, in the midsection while hunting hogs on a ranch in Maverick County, near Eagle Pass, on Jan. 31 of that year.

Rather than flee, Gonzalez rushed Lopez to a hospital. According to court documents, Lopez's family settled last year for $60,000.

San Antonio attorney Jose Antonio Garcia, who represented Lopez's family, said the sum was smaller because the ranch had shallower pockets than the one in the Barrera case, and the hunter acted quickly to help the victim.

Still, Garcia said Lopez's survivors also want criminal justice. "So many people down there that engage in hunting, and they see it more as an accident, and if you were to prosecute every accident it would not be feasible," he said.

A representative of the district attorney's office in Maverick County said the Gonzalez case is pending. The next grand jury meets in March, although it's not known whether prosecutors will seek an indictment.

mark.babineck@chron.com