Andrews County Fatal Shooting: Your Legal Rights After the Death of Matthew Cody Kintzel
If you are reading this page at two in the morning, someone you love is gone and the silence around how they died is its own kind of wound. The Andrews County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence in the 2000 block of Southeast 2700 on the evening of June 12, 2026, and found Matthew Cody Kintzel deceased inside a building on the property. The Texas Rangers took over the investigation. An autopsy was performed three days later at the Texas Panhandle Forensic Center in Lubbock — 120 miles of dark highway northeast of Andrews — and no findings have been released. No suspect has been named. No manner of death has been disclosed. The investigation, in the words of the Texas Department of Public Safety, remains ongoing.
We cannot give you back what was taken. What this page can do is tell you the truth about your legal rights while that investigation runs — about the evidence that is already beginning to disappear on its own clock, about the civil remedies that exist in parallel with the criminal case, and about the decisions that must be made in days, not months, even though everything in you wants to wait for more answers.
This is the work of Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes wrongful death cases in Texas. Ralph Manginello has spent 27+ years in courtrooms, including federal court. Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to delay, deny, and devalue claims from people in exactly the position you are in now — and he now uses that insider knowledge for injured families. We serve families fully in English and in Spanish. The call is free. The consultation is free. We do not get paid unless we win your case. Call 1-888-ATTY-911, 24 hours a day, seven days a week — not an answering service, a live person.
Texas Wrongful Death Law After a Fatal Shooting
Texas wrongful death actions are governed by the Texas Wrongful Death Act, which allows surviving spouses, children, and parents to recover damages for the death of a family member caused by another person’s wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default. The statute of limitations for wrongful death in Texas is generally two years from the date of death — meaning the clock on this case began running on June 12, 2026, and every day that passes is a day closer to a deadline that, once missed, cannot be reopened.
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence framework with a 51% bar. In plain English: your own share of fault reduces your recovery, and if you are more than 50% at fault, you are barred entirely. But in a wrongful death case where the decedent was the victim of a shooting, comparative fault is rarely the central fight — the question is who caused the shooting and whether a third party with control over the property or the firearm failed to prevent it.
Texas imposes no general cap on non-economic damages in personal injury or wrongful death cases outside of medical malpractice. That matters enormously. In a fatal shooting case, the human losses — the loss of companionship, the loss of guidance, the loss of the life the family was supposed to share — are recoverable in full, not subject to an arbitrary ceiling that some states impose. The insurance company’s lawyers know this. Now you do too.
Survival Claims: What the Decedent Endured Before Death
Separate from the wrongful death claim, Texas law allows the estate to bring a survival action — a claim for the damages the decedent would have recovered had they survived. This includes conscious pain and suffering experienced between the injury and death, medical expenses incurred before death, and any other damages the person could have pursued. In a shooting case, the survival claim turns on a painful but critical question: did the decedent survive even briefly after the gunshot? If there was any period of consciousness — even seconds — between the wound and death, that pain is compensable. The autopsy report, when it is released, will address the mechanism of death and the timeline of injury to death, which is the foundation of the survival claim.
Punitive Damages in Texas Shooting Cases
Punitive damages — called exemplary damages in Texas — may be available under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Act Section 41.003 if gross negligence or malicious conduct is proven. In a shooting case, this means two things. First, if the shooter acted with malice, punitive damages are on the table against the perpetrator directly. Second, if a property owner disregarded a known, recurring danger on their land — prior shootings, prior assaults, prior criminal activity that they knew about and ignored — the argument that the owner’s disregard was gross negligence becomes the predicate for punitive damages. This is why the prior-calls-for-service history at the subject property is not a footnote; it is the engine of the most powerful damages theory in the case.
The Autopsy: What It Proves and Why It Matters
The autopsy conducted on June 15, 2026, at the Texas Panhandle Forensic Center in Lubbock is the single most important document in this case. It is the foundation of every civil theory — and until it is obtained and reviewed, no meaningful evaluation of liability or case value is possible.
What the Autopsy Report Will Establish
A forensic autopsy in a gunshot death determines six things that decide the direction of every civil claim:
Cause of death. This is the medical mechanism — the gunshot wound itself, the specific injury path, the organs damaged, and the physiological cause of death (hemorrhage, organ failure, airway compromise). This establishes that the shooting caused the death, which is the first link in the chain of causation.
Manner of death. This is the single most consequential finding for civil liability. The medical examiner will classify the death as one of four categories: homicide (death at the hands of another), accident (unintentional), suicide (self-inflicted), or undetermined (insufficient evidence to classify). This classification drives the entire civil analysis:
– Homicide opens direct perpetrator liability and potentially premises liability if the property owner had notice of criminal risk.
– Accident may open negligent storage or entrustment of a firearm, and possibly products liability if a malfunction contributed.
– Suicide significantly limits civil recovery, though narrow theories of negligent entrustment or failure to warn may apply in specific circumstances.
– Undetermined is the most challenging — it requires independent investigation and expert analysis to build the causation case the medical examiner could not conclude.
Bullet trajectory. The entry wound, exit wound (if any), and path through the body tell a story about where the shooter was positioned relative to the decedent. This is critical for reconstructing the scene and determining whether the physical evidence matches any witness accounts or the property owner’s description of events.
Range of fire. The presence or absence of stippling (gunpowder tattooing), soot, and gunshot residue around the wound tells the forensic pathologist whether the shot was fired at contact range (gun pressed against skin), near-contact, intermediate (within a few inches to a few feet), or distant. This single finding can distinguish a self-inflicted wound from one inflicted by another person, and it can confirm or contradict a claim of self-defense.
Caliber and weapon type. The autopsy will identify the bullet caliber and, if possible, the type of weapon. This connects the shooting to a specific firearm, which in turn connects to the firearm owner theory.
Toxicology. Blood and tissue analysis for alcohol, drugs, and medications provides context — but the defense will try to use it to argue the decedent was impaired or agitated, which is why toxicology findings must be interpreted carefully and in context.
How to Obtain the Autopsy Report
The autopsy report was generated on June 15, 2026. It exists. It can be obtained — but the process depends on whether the case is still under active investigation by the Texas Rangers. While the investigation is ongoing, the report may be withheld under law-enforcement privilege. Once the investigation closes or the case is cleared, the report becomes obtainable through an open records request to the appropriate agency. A preservation letter and a formal records request should be filed immediately to establish the family’s right to the report and to ensure it is not amended or supplemented without the family’s knowledge. An independent forensic pathologist should then review the report to verify the findings and identify any issues that warrant further investigation.
Damages: What a Wrongful Death Case Is Worth in Texas
The case value range for this incident runs from $0 to approximately $3,500,000, and that extraordinary width reflects the near-total absence of facts regarding the manner of death, the responsible parties, and the civil liability exposure. This is not a number a lawyer can give you over the phone on the day you call. It is a range that will narrow — dramatically — as the investigation proceeds and the facts emerge.
What Drives Value Toward Zero
If the investigation reveals a self-inflicted shooting with no third-party negligence, the civil recovery value approaches zero. If the shooting was an accident with no negligent storage, no defective firearm, and no property owner negligence, the civil recovery value is similarly limited. A case cannot be valued until the manner of death is established, and no honest lawyer will put a dollar figure on a case before the autopsy findings are known.
What Drives Value Toward the High End
If the autopsy confirms a homicide on property where the owner had notice of prior criminal activity and failed to implement reasonable security measures, the wrongful death and survival claims against a landowner with adequate insurance or assets could justify a multi-million-dollar recovery. The key drivers of high-end value are:
A homicide manner of death — establishes that another person caused the death, opening every third-party liability theory.
Prior similar incidents at the property — the property owner’s notice of danger, the engine of foreseeability, the predicate for punitive damages.
An identifiable, collectible defendant — a property owner with commercial liability coverage, a firearm owner with assets, or a perpetrator with insurance or earnings.
The decedent’s economic profile — age, occupation, earning history, and family status determine the economic loss. A young worker in the Permian Basin oil economy with decades of earning capacity ahead, supporting a family, represents a significant economic loss that a forensic economist can calculate with precision.
Punitive damages exposure — if the property owner disregarded a known, recurring danger, or if the shooting was committed with malice, punitive damages under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Act become available, significantly increasing the case’s value and settlement leverage.
The Economic Damage Stream
Wrongful death damages in Texas for statutory beneficiaries — surviving spouse, children, and parents — include the loss of the decedent’s earning capacity, loss of care, maintenance, support, services, advice, counsel, and companionship and society. A life-care planner and forensic economist build this number the same way they do in any catastrophic case: the worklife expectancy from federal labor data, the wage history, the fringe benefits (which federal figures show run roughly 30% on top of wages for a private-sector worker), the household services the decedent provided for free (childcare, cooking, repairs, driving — valued at replacement cost using federal time-use data), and the present-value calculation that the Supreme Court’s framework in Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. v. Pfeifer governs. All of it is reduced to present value using a discount rate that the defense will try to maximize and the plaintiff’s economist will keep honest.
The Human Losses
Texas does not cap non-economic damages in wrongful death cases outside medical malpractice. The loss of companionship, the loss of society, the loss of the parent’s guidance for children left behind, the loss of the spouse’s partnership — all of these are recoverable in full. The insurance company’s first offer will be a fraction of what these losses are worth, which is exactly why the full economic and human damage picture must be built before any number is discussed.
Survival Damages: Conscious Pain and Suffering
If the decedent survived even briefly after the gunshot wound — if there was any period of consciousness between the injury and death — the survival claim captures that pain, suffering, and mental anguish. The autopsy report’s findings on the mechanism of death and the timeline from injury to death will determine whether a survival claim is viable and how significant it is. A forensic pathologist can reconstruct the likely period of consciousness from the wound trajectory and the organs affected, and this reconstruction is the foundation of the survival damages demand.
Compensation Is Generally Tax-Free
Under federal law, compensation received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness — including wrongful death recoveries — is generally excluded from gross income. The exception is punitive damages and interest, which are generally taxable. This matters because it means the compensatory recovery a family receives is not eroded by federal income tax, which is exactly why the structure of any settlement — what is designated as compensatory versus punitive — has real financial consequences for the family.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
How a Wrongful Death Shooting Case Is Built
Here is how a case like this is actually built, from the first call to the courthouse — told by someone who has run this process.
Week one: Preservation. The day you call, a preservation letter goes out to the property owner, the Andrews County Sheriff’s Office, and any neighboring property owners with potential surveillance. That letter orders them to freeze every piece of evidence — the surveillance footage, the dispatch records, the incident reports, the building’s condition, the prior-calls-for-service history — before the overwrite cycles and retention policies erase them. This letter is the single most important early step in the case. Without it, the evidence dies on its own schedule.
Weeks two through eight: Investigation monitoring and records. While the Texas Rangers complete their criminal investigation, we monitor the case through the family’s victim liaison with the Andrews County Sheriff’s Office or Texas DPS. We file open-records requests for the autopsy report, the dispatch records, the 911 call audio, the prior-calls-for-service history, and the property ownership records. We obtain the property title and ownership structure to identify the correct defendant and determine insurance coverage availability. We begin building the property’s history — every prior incident, every prior complaint, every prior law-enforcement contact — because that history is the foreseeability spine of the negligent security claim.
Once the Rangers release findings or the case is cleared: Expert deployment. When the investigation concludes or the autopsy findings become available, we retain a forensic pathologist to independently review the autopsy report and a crime-scene reconstructionist to analyze the shooting dynamics. The forensic pathologist verifies the cause and manner of death, the bullet trajectory, the range of fire, and the timeline from injury to death. The reconstructionist analyzes the scene evidence — the shell casing locations, the bloodstain patterns, the building layout — to reconstruct what happened and whether the physical evidence supports the civil theory.
If a negligent security theory emerges: Premises liability expert. We deploy a premises liability expert to evaluate the property’s security posture against industry standards for similar rural West Texas properties. Was the property adequately lit? Were access points secured? Were there warnings or barriers? Had the owner taken any steps to address prior criminal activity? The expert’s report becomes the standard-of-care anchor at trial — the measuring stick the jury uses to decide whether the property owner did what a reasonable owner should have done.
Discovery and depositions. The records come out in discovery. The property owner is deposed under oath — asked about their knowledge of prior incidents, their security measures, their relationship with the decedent, and their actions on the night of the shooting. The shooter, if identified, is deposed about how they accessed the property, how they obtained the firearm, and what led to the shooting. The witnesses are deposed about what they saw and heard. Every deposition is a chance to lock in testimony before memories fade or stories change.
The number at the end. The damages number is built from all of it — the economic loss calculated by a forensic economist, the human losses argued from the family’s testimony and the evidence of the relationship lost, the survival damages from the forensic pathologist’s reconstruction of the decedent’s conscious pain, and the punitive damages from the property owner’s prior notice of danger. That number is not a guess. It is an arithmetic problem solved with expert testimony, federal labor data, and the specific facts of this family’s loss. The insurance company’s first offer will be a fraction of it. The settlement or verdict that follows is built from the proof we assembled from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do I have to file a wrongful death lawsuit in Texas after a shooting?
Texas’s Wrongful Death Act gives surviving spouses, children, and parents a statute of limitations generally of two years from the date of death. In this case, the clock started on June 12, 2026. There are limited tolling provisions that may apply in narrow circumstances, but the safe assumption is that the two-year deadline is real and running. Waiting until the criminal investigation is complete to consult a lawyer can cost the family the case — not because the SOL expires first, but because the evidence that proves the case may be gone before the SOL is even halfway run.
Can I file a civil lawsuit while the criminal investigation is still ongoing?
Yes. The civil case and the criminal investigation run in parallel, not in sequence. The civil case does not interfere with the criminal prosecution — it is a separate proceeding with a different burden of proof, different parties, and different remedies. In fact, filing the civil case early can be an advantage because it gives the family’s lawyer the power to issue preservation letters, conduct discovery, and lock in testimony while the evidence is still fresh. The civil case can proceed even if the criminal case ends in acquittal, dismissal, or no charges at all. The criminal burden is beyond a reasonable doubt; the civil burden is a preponderance of the evidence — a much lower bar.
What does the autopsy report tell us, and how do we get it?
The autopsy report from the Texas Panhandle Forensic Center in Lubbock establishes the cause of death, the manner of death (homicide, accident, suicide, or undetermined), the bullet trajectory, the range of fire, the caliber, and the toxicology findings. It is the single most important document in the case. While the Texas Rangers’ investigation is ongoing, the report may be withheld under law-enforcement privilege. Once the investigation closes or the case is cleared, the report becomes obtainable through an open records request. A formal request should be filed immediately to establish the family’s right to the report. An independent forensic pathologist should review it to verify the findings and identify any issues warranting further investigation.
What if the shooter is never identified?
Even if the shooter is never identified, a civil case may proceed against other responsible parties — most commonly the property owner under a negligent security or premises liability theory. If the property owner had notice of prior criminal activity on the property and failed to implement reasonable security measures, they can be held liable for the shooting regardless of whether the shooter is ever caught. The key is proving foreseeability through the prior-calls-for-service history at the property. The practical challenge is that without an identified shooter, the negligent security theory must carry the full weight of the case — which is why the property’s history of prior incidents is the most important evidence to preserve.
Can a property owner be held liable for a shooting on their land in Texas?
Yes — if the property owner knew or should have known that criminal activity was a risk on the property and failed to take reasonable steps to protect people on the land. This is the negligent security theory, and it applies to rural properties just as it applies to urban apartment complexes. The duty owed depends on the visitor’s legal status: an invitee is owed the highest duty (inspection and warning of dangers), a licensee is owed a duty to warn of known dangers, and a trespasser is owed only the duty not to injure intentionally or through gross negligence. The foreseeability question is proven by prior similar incidents — prior 911 calls, prior police reports, prior criminal activity at the property. The prior-calls-for-service record at the 2000 block of SE 2700 is the engine of this theory.
What damages are available in a Texas wrongful death shooting case?
Wrongful death damages for statutory beneficiaries — surviving spouse, children, and parents — include loss of the decedent’s earning capacity, loss of care, maintenance, support, services, advice, counsel, and companionship and society. Survival damages include the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering between injury and death, plus medical expenses incurred before death. Punitive damages may be available under the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Act Section 41.003 if gross negligence or malicious conduct is proven. Texas imposes no general cap on non-economic damages in wrongful death cases outside medical malpractice, meaning the full human loss — the companionship, the guidance, the society — is recoverable without an arbitrary ceiling.
How much is a fatal shooting wrongful death case worth in Andrews County?
No honest lawyer can give you a dollar figure before the autopsy findings are known and the responsible parties are identified. The case value range runs from $0 — if the investigation reveals a self-inflicted shooting with no third-party negligence — to potentially several million dollars — if the autopsy confirms a homicide on property where the owner had notice of prior criminal activity and failed to act. The factors that drive value are the manner of death, the prior-incident history at the property, the collectibility of the defendant, the decedent’s earning capacity and family status, and whether punitive damages are available. The case cannot be meaningfully valued until the Texas Rangers release findings, the manner of death is established, and a defendant with collectible assets or insurance is identified. Voir dire in Andrews County should account for the rural, oil-field-community demographic — jurors here are practical, skeptical of speculative claims, and need a clear, fact-anchored narrative before awarding significant damages.
Can a firearm owner be sued if someone else used their gun?
Yes — under the Texas negligent entrustment doctrine, if the firearm owner provided access to a gun to a person they knew or should have known posed a danger, civil liability may attach. The elements are: the owner provided access to a dangerous instrumentality (a firearm) to a person they knew or should have known was likely to use it carelessly or dangerously. The proof is in the specifics — who owned the gun, how did the shooter get access, was it stored securely, was the shooter known to be dangerous, had there been prior threats or incidents. Texas does not have a universal safe-storage law, but the negligent entrustment doctrine provides a civil remedy when a firearm owner’s failure to secure a weapon foreseeably leads to harm.
What should I do — and not do — in the first days after a fatal shooting?
Do: Contact the victim liaison through the Andrews County Sheriff’s Office or Texas DPS for criminal-case updates. Request the autopsy report through proper channels. Send preservation letters to the property owner and any parties with surveillance footage. Obtain property ownership records from the Andrews County Clerk. Document everything you know in writing. Do not: Give a recorded statement to any insurance company. Sign anything. Post about the case on social media. Talk to the property owner’s lawyer. Wait. The single most important step is calling a lawyer who can begin the evidence-preservation process — even if no lawsuit is filed for months.
What if my loved one was partly at fault for the situation?
Texas follows a modified comparative negligence framework with a 51% bar — your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if you are more than 50% at fault, you are barred entirely. But in a wrongful death shooting case, comparative fault is rarely the central fight. The question is who caused the shooting and whether a third party with control over the property or the firearm failed to prevent it. The defense will try to pin percentage points on the decedent — arguing he went to the property voluntarily, knew it was dangerous, assumed the risk. Every point is money. But the defense cannot use assumption of risk as a complete bar in Texas — it is folded into the comparative fault analysis, and only bars recovery if the decedent was more than 50% at fault. In a shooting case where the decedent was the victim, not the aggressor, the comparative fault argument is typically weak.
Contact Us Now
The evidence is disappearing. The clock is running. The insurance company has already started its defense file. The single most important thing you can do today is talk to a lawyer who can begin the preservation process — even if no lawsuit is filed for months.
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win your case. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC · Attorney911 · Legal Emergency Lawyers™
1177 West Loop S, Suite 1600, Houston, TX 77027 · (713) 528-9070 · 1-888-288-9911
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential.