D Guerra Construction LLC pleaded guilty in connection with the death of 24-year-old Juan Jose Galvan Batalla after a 13-foot trench collapsed during residential water-line work in Travis County in October 2021. The trench had partially collapsed earlier that day, but workers were told to return; Galvan Batalla died a week later of traumatic asphyxia and a coworker was seriously injured. A grand jury indicted the company and a supervisor on criminally negligent homicide charges; the company later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury and the supervisor's case remains pending. Investigations have found hundreds of preventable trench fatalities and few criminal charges against employers.
A Texas construction company that was one of scores across the country whose employees have died after trenches they were working in collapsed, reached a plea deal Tuesday with prosecutors. Austin-based D Guerra Construction LLC agreed to plead guilty in connection with the death of Juan Jose Galvan Batalla, 24, of Bastrop, Texas. The company was indicted last year after he and another worker were installing a residential water line in Travis County in October 2021 when the 13-foot-deep trench caved.
The company pleaded guilty in July to a lesser charge assault causing bodily injury, a misdemeanor. The case against Guerrero is ongoing. Garza said it was the first time since the early '90s that a corporation had pleaded guilty over a worker's death in Travis County. When announcing the indictments in 2024, he cited an NPR, Texas Public Radio and 1A investigation that year, which found that 250 people died between 2013 and 2023 when trenches they were working in collapsed.
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