EL PASO — The El Paso Times reported Wednesday that a settlement was reached between the families of migrants shot at a stock tank in Hudspeth County and a prison that employed one of the alleged shooters.
On September 22, 2022, 13 migrants crossing the desert stopped at a stock pond south of Sierra Blanca, Texas, to get water. Two brothers, Mike and Mark Sheppard, stopped at the pond and fired at the migrants hiding in the brush, according to an affidavit filed at the time by the Texas Rangers. The brothers contended that they were hunting and thought they were firing at a javelina.
Jesus Sepúlveda died from a gunshot wound to the head in the shooting, and Brenda Berenice Casias Carrillo was shot in the stomach but survived.
The brothers were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and manslaughter, but the El Paso District Attorney’s Office still has not sought an indictment.
Sepúlveda’s family and Casias filed a wrongful death lawsuit against LaSalle Corrections, which owns the West Texas Detention Facility in Sierra Blanca, where Mike Sheppard was a warden. Since Sheppard allegedly was on duty, the lawsuit alleged the prison corporation was liable, The El Paso Times reported. Details of the settlement were not available, the newspaper reported.