Palm tree shooter charged with murder

EDINBURG — A 25-year-old arborist was charged with murder Friday after a man he accused of theft died from injuries sustained in an attack earlier this week.

Authorities originally arrested Graham Garfield, of Donna, on two counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting at three men Tuesday as they fled his family's tree farm near the intersection of Val Verde and Canton roads, southeast of Edinburg.

Early Friday, the family of one of the victims - 21-year-old Alejandro Estrada - took him off life support at Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen.

Although Garfield has made no statements since his arrest, he initially told investigators he thought the men were trying to steal palm trees from the property, according to a criminal complaint filed in his case.

But deputies found no evidence that suggested Estrada and his companions had planned to steal anything from the Garfield family's Southern Nurseries compound.

No trees were discovered in the Lincoln Town Car they had been driving, and the men did not appear to be carrying any tools that would have aided in a theft, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. Still, Graham confronted the men with a shotgun just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, firing one blast at the front of the vehicle and a second as it drove away.

"We looked at it from the perspective of trying to clear the shooter within the parameters of the law," Treviño said. "But we found absolutely no evidence to justify this crime."

Employees at Southern Nurseries had filed three previous reports of stolen palm trees within the last three years - including one a week before the shooting incident.

But Estrada's companions said they had only entered Southern Nurseries to relieve themselves and tried to flee as soon as Garfield challenged them.

He shot at them once they were on the public roadway, Treviño said.

"This is why we can't allow citizens to take the law into their own hands," he said. "We live in a country with a rule of law."

As of late Friday night, Garfield remained in the Hidalgo County Jail on a $2 million combined bond. His attorney Ric Salinas did not return calls for comment.

If convicted, Garfield - a scion of the Rio Grande Valley's prominent Bentsen family, which included former U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen - could face up to life in prison and $10,000 in fines.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.