District Court Judge Janna Whatley placed Rodrigo Chapa III, also known as Roy Chapa III, on seven years of deferred adjudicated probation and ordered him to pay a $2,500 fine.
Deferred adjudicated probation means judgment will be deferred until later, if ever. Offenders who successfully fulfill the terms of their probation will not be judged and thus will not have a criminal record in connection with the offense. However, if they violate the terms of their probation, they can be sentenced to the maximum amount of time in prison for the offense without a trial.
In this case, Chapa could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if he fails to abide by the terms of his probation.
Whatley sentenced him during a brief trial in front of her bench Monday as part of a plea bargain agreement between the district attorney’s office and Chapa.
Chapa, 19, and three other men are accused of threatening to harm a Beeville man on July 2.
Beeville police said Chapa and his two juvenile companions confronted the man as he tossed trash into a dumpster near an apartment complex on Alaniz Circle.
According to a police report of the incident, all three men were dressed in red and said they belonged to a gang.
The man told police that the three men told him he “was lucky he wasn’t wearing blue.”
Chapa is accused of holding a baseball bat and threatening to hit the man.
Chapa told the man, “I’ll take you one on one,” the man told police.
One of the juveniles threatened to “cut” the man but the man’s daughter came outside and recognized the men and called them by their names so they left, the police report stated. One of the juveniles was wearing a red bandana over his face and neither the girl nor her dad could recognize him.
The girl and her dad informed officers when they arrived that Chapa and the two boys had gone into one of the apartments, according to court records.
Police knocked on the door and were told the three were not in the apartment. Chapa and the boys were later found hiding in the apartment, court documents revealed.
One of the teens hiding in the attic was discovered after an officer spotted his foot sticking out of the attic door. Officers found the baseball bat under a bed on which Chapa was lying, according to the report. Chapa was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second degree felony offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
A Bee County grand jury also indicted him on one count of engaging in organized criminal activity for his involvement with a street gang. However, that charge was dropped, apparently as part of the plea bargain agreement.
The two juveniles were sentenced to three years in a Texas Youth Commission facility, which is essentially a prison for young people.
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