Two years after Sierra Blanca migrant shootings, criminal case languishes

By Adelaide Olberding and Emma Popkin / El Paso Matters

Light winds wafted across an arid stretch of desert in Hudspeth County near the intersection of Farm-to-market Road 1111 and Indian Hot Springs Road on Sept. 27, 2022, when the rumbling of a pickup disrupted a group of 13 migrants trudging toward the Fivemile Tank reservoir. 

The pickup stopped, a man exited and fired two rounds from a shotgun at the migrants now hiding in the bushes. When the smoke cleared, one migrant, Jesus Sepúlveda, lay dead from a gunshot wound to the head, and another, Brenda Berenice Casias Carrillo, was wounded in the abdomen.

That was nearly two years ago, and the case against the suspects on charges of manslaughter and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon has not seen movement in the courts for some time, even as a key date approaches.

On Sept. 27, the statute of limitations will expire on the state’s charge of a misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors could still charge the suspects with a felony for another year, however, and no statute of limitations exists in the manslaughter charges in the death of Sepúlveda.

The suspected shooter was identified as Michael “Mike” Sheppard, 62, then a warden at the West Texas Detention Facility, a privately owned compound on the outskirts of Sierra Blanca that was previously used to house detained migrants. Sheppard was employed by Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections. His twin brother, Mark Sheppard, 62, a former detention officer at the same facility, was driving the pickup. 

The Sheppard brothers are now living in Florida.

El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks told El Paso Matters there’s been a “tug of war” between the state and the federal government over who’s going to prosecute first or whether there will be dual prosecutions – which are rare, he said. He said he believed the federal investigation was going to supersede and take the lead.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, which would handle a federal prosecution, declined comment.

In an interview with El Paso Matters, the brothers’ attorney, Brent Mayr, maintains that this was “nothing more than a tragic, unfortunate accident.”

Neither Casias nor Sepúlveda’s family would comment on this story.

The impending statute of limitations deadline has drawn concern from area attorneys and human rights advocacy groups that point to Hicks for inaction on the case. They argue that Hicks instead has been focused on prosecuting on misdemeanor rioting charges large groups of migrants who made their way past rolls of concertina wire and Texas National Guardsmen in an attempt to turn themselves into Border Patrol agents.

Who goes first, feds or state?

Hicks said that in most circumstances, the DA’s office will defer to federal prosecution if they’re going to proceed but added that he’s become “very dissatisfied with the progress” on the federal side. He said the federal government may be looking at charges involving a crime motivated by racial factors.

Hicks said that the Texas Rangers presented the case to his office, which found there were “some holes in the investigation.” He said he could not provide details, only to say that his office is working with the Texas Rangers and the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office. He added that there has been “a great deal of movement” in the case behind the scenes in the past six to nine months.

The DA said that while his office is moving forward with the “goal of taking the case to the grand jury,” he can’t guarantee prosecution.

When asked about the statute of limitations for the misdemeanor charge, Hicks said his office was less concerned about that than the more serious charges. 

“We’re really focusing on the murder, and the aggravated assault charges — those are the ones that are really the focus here,” he said

Hicks said the Texas Rangers are finishing up “some ballistics of scientific investigation” and that the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office is finishing up witness investigation.

“Once all of that is concluded, then I think we’ll be in a position to move forward,” he said.

‘Not justice, but politics’

Felix Valenzuela, an El Paso criminal defense attorney, said allowing the statute of limitations to expire essentially means that the prosecuting attorney in that county can no longer bring charges against the individual for those alleged acts.

“It’s forever gone,” he said, adding that not moving this case forward could also lead to the arrest being completely wiped from the Sheppard brothers’ records.

“There’s no reason whatsoever that they have not brought charges on the Sheppard brothers,” Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela, who is not involved in the case, said he believes that Hicks’ actions are politically motivated.

“He has, from the very beginning, shown that his full motivation is politics. Not justice, but politics,” Valenzuela said, adding that taking misdemeanor rioting cases to the grand jury that is usually reserved for felony cases is “something unprecedented in El Paso.”

Hicks, however, disagrees with these judgments. “I very strongly dispute that it was a politically based or migrant-based decision. Anyone who breaks the law should have to face justice,” Hicks said.

“I really take issue with people who say, you shouldn’t have rushed to file those cases, it was politics to rush to file those cases, because (it’s not). It’s adherence to the law … we only have 15 days,” he said.

A Republican appointed to the seat by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2022, Hicks serves as district attorney for the 34th Judicial District, which encompasses El Paso, Hudspeth, and Culberson counties. 

Critics argue that his priorities reflect a broader trend of criminalizing migration rather than addressing local justice needs, raising questions about the equitable allocation of prosecutorial resources.

Migrant ‘riot’ arrests

On March 21, Hicks reported in a news release that nine migrants cut through concertina wire and led approximately 1,000 asylum-seekers toward the border gate on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande in El Paso.

About 425 migrants broke away from the main group, breached the wire, and surged past Texas National Guard members at the gate before reaching another fence, Hicks said. More than 200 of these migrants were arrested on misdemeanor rioting charges. Another similar incident took place April 12.

County Court-at-Law Judge Ruben Morales dismissed the 211 cases after a hearing May 8, where public defender Kelli Childress argued that the misdemeanors had been improperly directed to Morales’ court. Childress represented about half of the 355 migrants who faced charges stemming from the two incidents. 

“I made no secret even in court over the fact that I was very troubled by this odd sense of prosecutorial vigor for this rioting, misdemeanor charge that they came up with, and I think what bothered me more than anything, was that there was zero evidence to sustain any of that.” Childress said, adding that all the rioting cases were dismissed.

Fernando Garcia, executive director of Border Network for Human Rights, has also expressed frustration over the inaction of the Sheppard brothers’ case – especially given the swift action on misdemeanor charges against the hundreds of migrants.

“In this case, the people that were the victims of this aggression were migrants themselves. So it just perpetuates this idea that migrants can be disposable,” he said. 

James Montoya, the Democratic candidate running against Hicks for district attorney in the Nov. 5 general election, called the issue “systemic.”

“My critique of the DA’s office since Mr. Hicks has taken the office is that it continues to lose staff,” Montoya said. “And they just, in my opinion, do not have the appropriate prosecutorial priorities.”

Day of the shooting

The day of the shooting, the group of 13 migrants trudged toward Fivemile Tank, a reservoir named for the nearby Fivemile Peak, a 140-foot summit that juts out of the mountainous region of West Texas.

As the migrants stopped for a drink, a pickup approached. A man exited the truck and allegedly shouted in Spanish, “Come out, you sons of bitches, little asses,” migrants told federal agents at the scene, according to an affidavit submitted by a Texas Ranger as part of the investigation. The man then allegedly leaned against the pickup’s hood, steadied a shotgun and fired two rounds at the migrants who were hiding in the bushes nearby, the affidavit states.

The Sheppard brothers have changed their story multiple times, at points claiming they were hunting ducks or javelinas, although multiple witnesses claim they shouted at the migrants, court records show.

After the incident, the Sheppards drove away and attended the Hudspeth County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1 Board meeting where Mike Sheppard spoke in his capacity as warden. The water district’s minutes show that both brothers spoke at the meeting. 

The brothers were arrested Sept. 29, 2022, and charged with manslaughter under a bond of $250,000 each, which they claimed they could not pay. 

In October 2022, the 394th Judicial District Court judge lowered Mark Sheppard’s bond to a $50,000 cash or surety bond and a $200,000 personal recognizance bond, which doesn’t require that money be posted. 

Mike Sheppard, the alleged shooter, was granted  a $75,000 cash or surety bond and a $175,000 public recognizance bond. He appeared remotely from the Brewster County Jail while Mark Sheppard appeared from the Presidio County Jail. Both brothers were originally housed at the Hudspeth County Jail.

The brothers were then rearrested and additionally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, spending Oct. 5-28, 2022, in jail before being again released on bond.

Civil lawsuit pending

Aside from the criminal charges in the incident, a civil lawsuit has been filed against the company that employed Mike Sheppard at the time of the shooting.

Chris Benoit is the lawyer representing the families of Casias and Sepúlveda in the civil lawsuit against LaSalle Corrections, the company for which Mike Sheppard worked. The lawsuit alleges the company is at fault as Sheppard’s employer as he was on the way to a work event. 

The civil lawsuit doesn’t have a statute of limitations.

“I think our community in West Texas is under siege for a while. So what happened feels like the extension of a lot of stuff,” Benoit said. “They’re going to seek accountability in a similar context against LaSalle because it appears that Mark Sheppard was on the job at the time of this incident. But they also want justice in the criminal justice system.”