Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal Brownsville shooting

A 21-year-old man on Monday pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter over a fatal shooting during a handgun sale in Brownsville in 2024. D Marco Donez had been charged with murder for the Nov. 1, 2024 shooting of 21-year-old Kevin Villafranca Torres who had met with Donez and two Harlingen residents to purchase a handgun. The charges against the Harlingen residents were dismissed in 2025 due to insufficient evidence. The shooting happened in Brownsville in the 9600 block of Anacua Street at approximately 8:51 p.m. Police found Torres following the shooting on the southbound Frontage Road directly in front of 7077 N. Expressway 77/83 with a gunshot wound to the head. Donez, who remains jailed in the Cameron County Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center on a $1 million bond, faces 12 to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court records indicate. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 9. The post Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal Brownsville shooting appeared fir