Texas gunman arrested after manhunt, film and tv writers strike over pay: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Texas gunman caught after manhunt

The suspect in the rural Texas neighbor mass shooting has been found after a massive search. Plus, The Pentagon deploys troops to the border, USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze looks at the latest high court ethics debate, television and movie writers go on strike, and USA TODAY Investigative Reporter Gina Barton gives a peak at her new season of the Unsolved podcast.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson: Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 3rd of May 2023. Today, the manhunt is over for the suspect in the rural Texas neighbor shooting. Plus, the Pentagon deploys troops to the border and the Senate takes a closer look at Supreme Court ethics.

◆ The man accused of killing five neighbors, including a nine-year-old child in a rural Texas home, was taken into custody yesterday after a four-day manhunt, according to authorities. The 38-year-old suspect has been charged with five counts of murder and is being held on a $5 million bond. Authorities say he was firing rounds in his backyard late Friday night in the town of Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles from Houston. A neighbor asked him to shoot farther away because a baby was trying to sleep. Shortly after, he then went up to their house and opened fire.

Sonia Argentina Guzman was the first person killed, standing at the door, she was 25. Nine-year-old, Daniel Enrique Laso, was killed in a front room. Others include, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, age 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, aged 31, and 18-year-old, Jose Jonathan Casarez. You can read more about the victims from this violent tragedy with a link in today's show notes.

◆ The Pentagon will deploy 1,500 active duty troops to the US-Mexico border ahead of an expected surge in migrants hoping to enter the United States. Troops will not be involved in law enforcement activity. They'll fill a request by US Customs and Border Patrol for detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support, according to the Pentagon press secretary. Troops will be sent to the border for 90 days until the Department of Homeland Security hires contractors to fill those gaps.

The move echoes similar ones by the Trump administration, which were harshly criticized by Democrats at the time. This time around though it's Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott as the biggest critic. He said he previously deployed up to 10,000 Texas National Guardsman to the border.

◆ The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Supreme Court ethics yesterday. USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze has the latest. John, welcome back to 5 Things.

John Fritze: Hey, thanks.

Taylor Wilson: Why was this hearing held in the first place?

John Fritze: It's really a response to their revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas's luxury and lavish travel paid for by a GOP mega donor. That was the first story from ProPublica last month. There's been a series of stories since then, and Senate Democrats in particular are eager to see some sort of response from the Supreme Court to allegations of ethical lapses.

Taylor Wilson: And how do Democratic and Republican lawmakers differ in their ethics criticisms of the high court?

John Fritze: I mean, there's a huge difference, and I think it speaks to the fact that we're probably not really going to see anything happen in Congress on this issue. And it wasn't always this way. I mean, just a few years ago you had Republicans who were supportive at least of maybe some more transparency at the Supreme Court, but that all really changed with the abortion decision last year.

I think Republicans feel like Democrats are still upset about that and are trying to make these changes to undermine or de-legitimize the Supreme Court's conservative majority. Democrats say, "Look, some of these allegations are pretty dramatic, lots of lavish travel, again, going to a justice, it's kind of unusual, not reported." And so, there's a real breakdown here along partisan lines on this issue, like many other issues.

Taylor Wilson: And how is the court itself responding to this hearing and ethics questions in general?

John Fritze: Radio silence. Chief Justice John Roberts was invited to testify at this hearing and "politely declined" that invitation and sent a note over that I think was attempting to answer some of these concerns, but I think especially for Democrats, raised a lot more questions than it answered.

Roberts sent a letter that he signed himself, and then all of the justices signed a multi-page statement of ethics that basically defended the status quo for how they have been doing things on this front for some time.

Taylor Wilson: And John, where do you see this Supreme Court ethics debate going next?

John Fritze: That's a really good question. I think it may turn in part on how many more stories we see like this. I'm not sure that this is the last. There's been a period here where almost every other day there's a new story. There's efforts on the right to de-legitimize some of those stories. There's a lot of debate about who's right here. I think if we see a lot more stories like this, I think it's going to be hard for the court not to do anything about it.

But you have a court, particularly led by Chief Justice Roberts, that's very careful about preserving the independence of the judiciary. And part of his whole mantra, part of his whole thing is not getting pushed around by the other branches or by public opinion, or by political will. And so, it's a real challenge to his approach. It'll be interesting to see whether anything comes of it.

Taylor Wilson: USA TODAY Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze. Thanks, as always.

John Fritze: Hey, thank you.

◆ Taylor Wilson: If you're wondering why your favorite late night hosts weren't on last night, writers are on strike. Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they're launching an industry-wide strike for the first time in 15 years. The Writer's Guild of America said its 11,500 unionized screenwriters would head to the picket lines this week.

Picketers: What do we want? Contracts. When do we want it? Now.

Taylor Wilson: Negotiations between studios and writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers' current deal expired. Writer and producer, Danny Strong, was on the picket line in New York yesterday.

Danny Strong: It's in this case, it's because of changing technology. Streaming has changed everything, and right now the current pay system is outdated. And this should have been addressed three years ago, but because of the pandemic, the Writers Guild very graciously chose not to fight this battle because we were all in the middle of a worldwide calamity. So, now in those three years, it only blew up into an even bigger issue and even more advantageous to the writers. So, now is the moment where we have to put our foot down and say, "Enough is enough. We need a larger share."Taylor Wilson: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade association that bargains on behalf of studios and production companies, said it presented an offer with generous increases in compensation and improvements in streaming residuals. It said it was prepared to improve its offer, but was unable to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table. We have a link in today's show notes on how this strike might affect your favorite shows and movies.

◆ Speaker 5: I asked Ms. Ruland, "Where's Alexis?" She said, "Alexis haven't made it to school."

Speaker 6: A seven-year-old girl just does not disappear. There was really no explanation for it, and I think everybody right away feared the worst.

Speaker 7: This is a case that rocked a city. It rocked a city like never before.

Taylor Wilson: Alexis Patterson was a seven-year-old girl from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who mysteriously disappeared on her way to school 21 years ago today. Alexis is one of hundreds of Black children who go missing every year. My next guest is Gina Barton, producer and host of Unsolved, a story about Alexis and the search for the truth. It's a true crime podcast from USA TODAY and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the first episode of season four drops today. Gina, welcome back to 5 Things.

Gina Barton: Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson: Gina, let's start here. What got you interested in this case?

Gina Barton: Alexis disappeared on May 3rd 2002, and I started working at the local paper in Milwaukee on May 6th, so the following Monday. So, this is a case that has been with me for more than 20 years in my reporting career. And throughout that time, my colleagues and I have tried to get information from the Milwaukee Police Department about what's happening with this case and what did they do and what leads did they pursue?

And so, one thing that we have been able to do is we have been able to shake loose some police records and we have gotten some new information from the police that has not been revealed in the entire two decades-plus that Alexis has been missing. So, I think we'll be able to give people some new insight, not only into Alexis's case, but into what the police procedures are when kids go missing and when they've been missing long term.

Taylor Wilson: And Elizabeth Smart went missing around the same time, a super famous case all over the headlines around America. How do these cases compare?

Gina Barton: The national press coverage of the two cases was completely different. This seemed to me like a perfect example of what we in the media have learned to call "missing white woman syndrome," where if a young, attractive, white girl disappears, it's all over the media, but if a young, Black girl disappears, not so much.

Taylor Wilson: And Gina, you and I have talked before about some of the flaws with how police go after runaways in this country. Does that issue apply to this case?

Gina Barton: The really interesting thing going back was that three days after she disappeared, the police chief at the time did a press conference and said he believed that she had run away. And he said, "We don't have a suspect at the time because we don't have any evidence that a crime has been committed." And I thought that was odd because she was seven years old. So, how does a seven-year-old run away and stay gone for three days? And now at this point, how would a seven-year-old run away and stay gone for more than 20 years?

The police gave up on the idea that she was a runaway within a few days or a week, but still, the fact that they were still saying that after three days was pretty unusual.

Taylor Wilson: Broadly speaking, does the search for missing Black kids reflect racism in America?

Gina Barton: A lot of the advocates that we've talked to have said it at least reflects implicit bias that white girls are seen as these damsels in distress and Black girls are seen as street smart and tough and they can take care of themselves. It's something that we are still here on our investigative team trying to quantify.

But again, the reason why I wanted to tell Alexis's story in the podcast is because there are a lot of really interesting twists and turns in the investigation and the search for Alexis that have happened in the past 20 years, while at the same time trying to raise awareness of the fact that for children who have been missing six months or more, they are disproportionately Black. So, there definitely is some sort of problem here with looking for and finding Black children who go missing.

Taylor Wilson: Gina Barton, tough topic, but we look forward to listening. Thanks so much.

Gina Barton: Thank you so much.

Taylor Wilson: Season four will drop Wednesdays, beginning today. Subscribe at usatoday.com/unsolved.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. If you like the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And if you have any comments, you can reach us at podcasts@usatoday.com. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas gunman caught, writers' strike begins: 5 Things podcast