BROWNSVILLE — Prosecutors say a South Texas man who smuggled hundreds of pounds of marijuana in crates of heavy machinery must serve 18 years in federal prison after being on the run since 2013.

Rene Izaguirre was sentenced Wednesday in Brownsville.

The 46-year-old Brownsville man in January 2013 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana. Prosecutors say he had a freight company contact and shipped drugs to Houston, Dallas and Pennsylvania.

Authorities believe Izaguirre ditched his ankle monitor months after pleading guilty, fled to Mexico, then resurfaced last fall in West Texas. Prosecutors say Izaguirre, located in Odessa, worked as a roofer but also allegedly sold cocaine.

He was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in the original case plus nine years for failure to appear, served consecutively.

 

Teen fatally shot after
paintball attack on house

HOUSTON — Houston police say a 19-year-old man was shot and killed outside a house that came under attack from people armed with a paintball gun.

Police said in a news release Wednesday that the resident told investigators he believed the attackers were shooting at his home late Tuesday night, so he opened fire.

Police have not released the name of the homeowner or the teenager who was killed. Police haven’t said if the homeowner knew the paintballers. No one has been arrested or charged.

Police say four men drove the 19-year-old to a hospital and that investigators are questioning his acquaintances.

Neighbors told police they saw people in the front yard of the man’s paint-splattered home and that they fled in different vehicles after the shooting.

 

Southwest mechanics
approve contract, raise

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines mechanics have approved a five-year contract that adds up to a 20% raise.

Dallas-based Southwest on Tuesday announced the tentative agreement with about 2,400 workers represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. Both sides in March announced they’d reached a tentative deal.

The agreement, which also calls for $160 million in bonuses, comes after six years of negotiations. Union officials say 94% of workers voted in favor of the proposal.

A Southwest statement says the new contract will become amendable in April 2024.

 

Former Miss Black Texas
sues city, ex-chief over arrest

DALLAS — A beauty pageant winner has sued a Texas city and its former police chief over an evading arrest charge that was later dropped.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Carmen Ponder filed the federal civil rights lawsuit Monday in Dallas over her May 2017 arrest in Commerce. Ponder won the Miss Black Texas competition in 2016.

Ponder’s lawsuit says Commerce’s then-police Chief Kerry Crews, who was off-duty, arrested her without reason during a confrontation over a traffic incident involving another driver.

Crews resigned the following month, took an administrative job with the city and now is a justice of the peace.

Commerce City Manager Darrek Ferrell and the city’s attorney, Jay Garrett, declined comment on Ponder’s lawsuit. Crews didn’t immediately return a message for comment Wednesday.

Commerce is 60 miles northeast of Dallas.

 

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