Man who shot at teens during 'Devil's Lagoon' ghost hunt owes victims $2.8M

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Seven young adults, who were just teens in 2020, were recently awarded $2.8 million after a man opened fire on them during a ghost hunt on a public road in 2020.

“I was terrified," said Slade Gutierrez, one of the victims. "It was probably the most terrified I’ve ever been in my life. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that kind of terror, that kind of emotion in general. It was so intense.”

On December 27, 2020, Slade and six friends went in search of the “Devil’s Lagoon” — a local legend deep in Willacy County’s countryside. But what they found wasn’t supernatural. It was something else entirely.

“Legend goes that when you go out there at night or whatever, that you can hear like the trots of a carriage, like over the water,” Slade said.

According to the teens, they were driving along a rural road when they encountered a man parked in a vehicle.

“We were going down the road, and we came up on a parked car on the side of the road, and he waved us down,” said Arturo Joseph Sayas, another Raymondville resident.

Roughly 150 yards south of FM 3142, the ghost hunt took a chilling turn — instead of a spirit, the boys came face to face with gunfire.

“He was parallel, almost parallel to my door. He shot right over my truck. And when I heard it shoot, I just stepped on it and took off,” Sayas said.

Sayas’s truck was missed, but Slade’s was not. Bullets struck the bumper, and one passed between two teens sitting in the backseat.

“I was a driver, so I heard it more than saw it, correct? But yeah, once I heard that glass shatter, I was scared to turn around and possibly see one of my friends not alive in the backseat or hurt in the backseat,” said Slade.

One of the teens sitting in the backseat was Diego Gutierrez, who said they were just searching for something paranormal because they got bored after playing video games at home. He never expected that night to be in the middle of gunfire.

“I was just shaking, like freaking out,” said Diego. “I just remember hearing my friend Aaron just yelling, ‘Go, go, go, go, go!’ to get out of there. Like, I was just in shock. I couldn't do anything. All I could do was just crawl up and try to avoid getting shot.”

The shooter, William Dane Rhodes, was sentenced to seven years of probation. Some of the victims and their families say the bullets could have easily killed one of the boys.

Earlier this week, in a civil trial, a jury found Rhodes liable for the shooting. He now owes the teens $2.8 million in damages.

Their attorney, Ryan Solis, says there was no just reason to believe that Rhodes acted in self-defense, as the boys did not have any weapons or drugs while on their venture.

“The shooting happened on El Toro Road, which is a public road — a county road,” said Solis. “And there was no evidence that they had been trespassing, that they had been stealing anything, destroying crops, shooting animals — nothing, nothing at all. That’s what was so wild about it. There was really no justification whatsoever for the shooting.”

Attempts to reach Rhodes’s attorney were unsuccessful.

The boys say they’re still dealing with the trauma from that night.

“I had trouble sleeping for a couple weeks, and even now, I still have some nightmares about that night,” said Diego.

Others feel they have gotten better over time, but still get flashbacks of that night.

“I’m definitely more jittery, more anxious,” Slade said. “And of course, I was able to work through that over the years. I mean, loud noises still really bother me.”