Texas Coast murder investigation leads authorities to SEGUIN

(Seguin) – A murder investigation in Brazoria County this past January led authorities to Seguin where they say that on Feb. 5, a search warrant obtained for a residence in the 800 Block of Boenig Street turned up evidence that is believed to be connected to the death investigation of 45-year-old Larry Ortiz along the Texas Coast.

Deputies learned that Ortiz and family were visiting the area celebrating a quincenera at a beach house near Freeport when Brazoria County Sheriff Investigators and Crime Scene Investigators were called to the scene.

Investigators learned that the son of the deceased, Larry Ortiz III had left the residence the evening of Jan. 27. He then returned to the residence in the early morning hours of January 28th with a friend, Lucas Hernandez and two unknown females.

As all four were upstairs in a bedroom for a short time, officers say that’s when two unknown males and an unknown female forced their way into the home displaying firearms. The two male suspects confronted Ortiz III and Hernandez in the bedroom, demanded money and began assaulting them.

Investigators believe that Larry Ortiz Jr. woke up from the commotion and began to defend Ortiz III and Hernandez from the suspects. That’s when they say Larry Ortiz Jr. was shot by one of the suspects. After the shooting, the three suspects and the two females fled the scene.

The suspects were later identified as Alena Nicole Pena Murillo, 20, Anzley Tay Castillo, 20; Richard Horn Jr., 29, Keerston Wilkerson, 21, and Guadalupe Navarro, 23. It was Navarro who was located and arrested in Guadalupe County.

Horn is said to have also been found in the area and taken into custody in Comal County. All other suspects were arrested and charged on murder. Each remain behind bars on a $2 million bond.

Bond, continued.

The 2022 Bond will ask voters to consider the $78.8 million package in one proposition that includes:

• Safety and security upgrades on the campuses

• Career and technical education upgrades

• Renovations of the high school

• Competition gym with new weight and locker rooms

He says a committee of community members developed this latest proposal in conjunction with the staff and administration. He says the decision is based on carefully considering all areas of need around the district while also balancing the expectations of the Marion ISD community.

“Looking at the results in November, we were able to reassess things, (and the committee) wanted to look to relook at a proposition to come forward again before the community simply because of the potential growth headed this way. We actually see some growth out there on 1044 now currently with the addition of the Wine Creek Ranch piece out there. The four main points that we looked at – safety and security being number one. The renovation of the high school is a big portion of that too. We just really wanted to reassess and look at what we had out there before and after looking at that, we know the need was there still to move forward,” said Dr. Beck.

Dr. Beck says much of the urgency to see things through is the cost factor. He says the district can not afford to put things off any longer.

“The piece that constantly worked on us was when you are looking at each time there is a delay in the build, it adds more and more money to the project through inflation and we are hearing things like 15 percent inflation and people are feeling that nowadays just on their own too – same thing with buildings and so, the urgency was there to look at moving forward and doing this again. The needs haven’t changed from one time to the next. We just felt like we needed to do a better job of communicating. We feel like we have a good plan moving forward and that’s what we are trying to do is communicate the needs of the district,” said Dr. Beck.

Dr. Beck says there are key elements as to why voters are seeing this larger price tag.

“I will say $6 million of it was inflation. That’s a small portion of it. That brought it up to $55 million plus. The extra pieces there were the needs sitting out there that both the bond committee that spent time working on it this summer as well as school board members was the gym and trying to get a competition gym as well as weight room and locker rooms together. Those were also things that were needs for the district and based on those needs, looked to add those to the overall package as well. But the base package that we had in November is still intact and that one because of inflation caused another $6 million increase,” said Dr. Beck.

Dr. Beck says the cost of the gym alone is proposed at $20.6 million. He says that gym space is vital to the athletic department and will continue to be a need as more kids come into the district.

“With our high school and junior high combined, we have two gyms. We use a portion of a gym at one of our elementary campuses too and it’s a competition gym that would primarily be high school, but we would have two other gyms available as well. Part of the need of a competition gym was to be able to separate the students but then also to provide extra space for students to be able to practice and to not have practice at all hours of the day and evening,” said Dr. Beck.

If the proposition is approved in May, Dr. Beck says the estimated impact would be a $14.08 per month increase for a home valued at $300,000 — the average market value for a home in the Marion ISD.

Dr. Beck says the tax increase this time around only shows that things will be pricey the more they have to wait. If voters had said yes in November, then the bond package would have had no impact to the tax rate.

Unfortunately, however, that’s not the case this time around. Should voters say yes in May, then he says it will be anywhere from a 6 to 6.5 cent increase on the I&S side of the total current tax rate of $1.3029. Although there is proposed tax increase, Dr. Beck is confident that the new growth will help offset some of that impact.

“This year, it doesn’t sound like much. We’ve added right about 70 kids this year alone without some of the major housing developments coming in so when you are looking at that compared to what we started with for the year, that right there alone is about 3 to 4 percent growth just from the start of the year to this point. So, if we were able to maintain that, of course it would grow exponentially because of the size but as you’ve seen both in Seguin and Navarro, when you get those neighborhoods that have multiple homes per acre, that’s when you see the growth growing more,” said Dr. Beck.

Homeowners age 65 and older are reminded that they will not be impacted by the passage of the bond propositions if they have filed for and received the Over 65 Homestead Exemption with the Guadalupe County Central Appraisal District.

Continued details throughout this bond campaign will continue to be updated at www.marionisd.net.

Early voting begins Monday, April 24 and ends May 2. Election Day is set for Saturday, May 6.