The wife of a man accused of killing five neighbors in Texas was helping him plot his escape to Mexico — and brought donuts to him at a bolthole just miles from the scene of the mass shooting, authorities said.
Divimara Lamar Nava, 53 — who was arrested Wednesday for allegedly hindering the apprehension of her husband, 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa — admitted to delivering a message from Oropesa to his cousins, asking them to help smuggle him out of the country to his native Mexico, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The relatives refused to participate in the scheme, prosecutors said.
While Oropesa was lying low at a double-wide trailer outside Conroe, Texas, Lama Nava brought him donuts from a store Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Authorities believe Lamar Nava was cooperating with investigators at the same time she was trying to aid Oropesa, San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said at a news conference.
She initially told authorities she didn’t know her husband’s whereabouts, but later told a federal agent that he showed up at the house about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
At 6 p.m., authorities acting on a tip they had received just an hour earlier converged on the Conroe-area home and found Oropesa hiding under a pile of laundry in a closet.
His arrest brought to an end an intense four-day manhunt that came to involve 250 officers, drones and search dogs from multiple agencies.
Neighbor Angel Lozano recalled seeing unmarked law enforcement vehicles racing down his normally quiet street Tuesday evening.
“A bunch of people got out with guns and they went straight to the house and surrounded the area,” Lozano said Wednesday, estimating that at least 50 officers took part in the dramatic arrest.
“It was a really fast job they did,” he said. “They got him without people getting hurt or another shooting.”
Several others have also been arrested, among them Domingo Castilla, a friend of Oropesa, who was charged with marijuana possession. Authorities also expect to charge him with obstructing his pal’s apprehension, Dillon said.
At a news conference Wednesday, San Jacinto County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Kean said he couldn’t go into details about the other people who were arrested, including how many.
Oropesa was charged Wednesday with five counts of first-degree murder, accused of gunning down his neighbors after they asked him to stop firing his AR-15-style gun next to their house Friday night while their baby was sleeping.
The victims were Diana Velásquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, all from Honduras.
During a court hearing Wednesday, Oropesa was ordered held on bonds totaling $7.5 million.
US immigration officials have revealed that Oropesa has been deported to Mexico four times between 2009 and 2016.
Lamar Nava is being held at the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon. Her bail has been set at $250,000.
With Post wires
