Travis County District Attorney’s Office Secures Guilty Plea from Corporate Defendant in Worker’s Death

This marks the first time since the early 1990s that a corporation has pleaded guilty to a worker’s death within Travis County

Travis County, TX — Today,Travis County District Attorney José Garza announced that onJuly 31, 2025, the construction company, D Guerra Construction LLC, pleaded guilty to Assault Causing Bodily Injury and agreed to complete various pre-sentencing conditions as part of their plea deal. The State agreed to ask the court to postpone the corporate defendant’s sentencing for up to 15 months while they complete the pre-sentencing conditions, which includes implementing various safety training requirements for all their employees hired to perform construction work in Travis County, create a process that allows employees to anonymously report safety concerns without fear of retaliation, and hire an independent safety monitor that is approved by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office to monitor compliance with the terms of this agreement for a 12-month period.    

On October 23, 2021, D Guerra Construction employees were working inside a trench to install a residential wastewater line for a new subdivision in southern Travis County. The trench collapsed, and D Guerra Construction employee Juan José Galvan Batalla, 24, was completely buried by the fallen soil and debris. Mr. Galvan Batalla died from his injuries on October 30, 2021.

In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) referred this case to our office after concluding their investigation and citing the company for various workplace violations.

On September 30, 2024, a Travis County grand jury indicted D Guerra Construction LLC and Carlos Alejandro Guerrero, 37, a Project Superintendent employed by D Guerra Construction LLC, for the offense of Criminal Negligent Homicide, a state jail felony.

On July 31, 2025, the corporate defendant accepted the state’s plea deal, which included the following agreements:

• Plead guilty to a lesser offense, Assault Causing Bodily Injury, a Class A Misdemeanor in open court.
• Complete the pre-sentencing conditions.  
• Admit to the Factual Basis and Stipulation of Facts in Support of Plea, a legal document where both parties agree on certain facts that are considered true for the case, submitted during the plea in open court.

On the same day, the State agreed to request that the court delay the corporate defendant’s sentencing for up to 15 months while they complete their pre-sentencing conditions. If they successfully meet these requirements, the State will request that the court refrain from authorizing fines allowed under the section of the penal code that applies exclusively to corporate defendants, Tex. Penal Code § 12.51

If the corporate defendant does not successfully comply with the presentencing conditions, it agrees to sentencing by the court and waives the right to be sentenced by a jury.

“Our hearts continue to break for the family of Mr. Galvan Batalla, and we hope this plea continues to help them with their healing process,” said Travis County District Attorney José Garza. “This is the first time in over three decades that a corporation has acknowledged responsibility for a worker’s death in Travis County. We are grateful to our team for negotiating a distinctive plea agreement accompanied by pre-sentencing conditions that may establish a precedent for holding corporations accountable.”

The Travis County District Attorney’s Office’s Public Integrity & Complex Crimes Division’s Economic Justice Enforcement Initiative is prosecuting the case against the corporate defendant and the individual defendant.

In 2021, our office launched the Economic Justice Enforcement Initiative within that division to allocate additional resources for prosecuting wage theft and unsafe working conditions that rise to the level of criminal conduct, like in this case.  All workers in Travis County deserve to be safe at work so they can return to their families at the end of the day. When employers engage in criminal conduct and expose their employees to hazardous working conditions, this office will hold them accountable.

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