The villagers had danced, and their children had tossed handfuls of water toward the sky, asking their god Onorame for help, but relief had not come. The sheriff had also helped deliver various loads, the agency claimed, altogether earning him $70,000 to $80,000 in drug money. PWW(defunct) Final roster, Michael Avalon, Michael Berlot, Damon Black, Blitzschlag, Vanessa von . The news coverage he could find estimated that more than a hundred Tarahumara had been arrested during the previous decade, but unless the defendants had to have a Rarmuri translator, like Escuders, their background had probably never come up. As Silvino left the San Isidro Lodge, where he had stayed the night, he glanced over at six mangy dogs and cats sleeping next to the embers of a nearby campfire. There were hairpin turns where the drop-off was thousands of feet, and he passed several roadside memorials. Thomas Chambers. He had to run. Muy ligero, he told himself. He was arrested and sentenced to eight months. More than five hundred Tarahumara, Silvino included, resolved to carry on anyway, and the mayor agreed to a version that cut out the downriver loop, where the major shoot-out had occurred. Later came the even more formidable Amado Carrillo Fuentes, leader of the Jurez cartel. Chambers grew up on the border. It was a twenty-minute drive downhill to the square, which Silvino would be running back up for the first leg of the race: these six miles were a steep climb of 1,500 feet. Cops and crooks are of the same caliber. He would share his produce with family, friends, and neighbors, a true labor of love. Sunlight broke through the slim canopy. John Robert Chambers 1 February 1875-19 July 1951 (Age 76) Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States The Life Summary of John Robert When John Robert Chambers was born on 1 February 1875, in Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States, his father, Asa Chambers, was 39 and his mother, Sara Melissa Long, was 25. In his book on his travels through the Sierra Madre mountains, Unknown Mexico, he recounts that when the Jesuits first arrived and asked the Tarahumara about the canyons depth, they replied, Only the birds know., For centuries the Tarahumara got by as subsistence farmers. Soon after, his mother was arrested for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Buchmeyer gave him the max: Two life terms without a chance of parole. Roughly forty miles northwest of Big Bend Ranch State Park, it is a place of extremes, a dry, barren land that is only ever hot or cold. His grandfather served as a Presidio County commissioner and was often asked to resolve border disputes privately. Volunteers were on hand to offer cheese sandwiches, bananas, and oranges. A month later, Chambers stood next to Vega againthis time in an El Paso courtroomfor a second and final hearing on his slightly improved sentence. He had run one hundred miles. He attributed part of the Tarahumaras success to their minimal footwear; they ran with a lightness unfamiliar to American runners, landing on the midpoint of their foot instead of the heel. The cartels were not letting up. The revelation, he said, left him feeling used, humiliated and dumb.. Light-footed. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. Others in the region had heard unsettling whispers, recalls former Presidio County Treasurer Mario Rivera, who served from 1974 until 2006. Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. Rather than face starvation, Silvinos cousins had approached him with an idea: they could go on a drug-running mission across the border. His plans are unknown, but his place in the annals of law enforcement infamy, as the Texas border sheriff who sold his badge for drug money, will be secure. By 2010, entire communities had emptied out of the canyons, and some ten thousand had fled to the city of Chihuahua, where they were more easily conscripted into smuggling. I have never heard They both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison. But in the nineties, as Mexican cartels rose in power relative to their Colombian counterpartswho preferred to traffic through South FloridaWest Texas became even more essential. Search law firms at FindLaw. Need an attorney in Chambers County, Texas? And not only did Thompson use Chambers as a confidential source, the sheriff went to bat for him over his legal problems. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the . About three hours later, the agents moved in to inspect the trailer, parked with the sheriffs other equipment. The thick old-growth trees had been chopped down long ago and sent to the sawmills of nearby Bahuichivo. It was March 2015, and the 27-year-old, with sandy-brown hair and a neatly cropped beard, was fresh out of law school. Competitors from all over the world, electrified by "Born to Run", made the pilgrimage to the Tarahumara homeland. After the fairgrounds drug bust, he cut a deal to testify against the sheriff. Federal agents and others had learned that his nickname in Mexico was La Puerta, the door to smuggling. Still, he got paid only if he successfully completed his mission. Not again, he thought. Robert is a managing . He didnt believe in spells, but Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. This is a carousel. . A landmark in Marfa, the old Presidio County Courthouse housed Rick Thompsons tax assessors office. It was cool now, but the temperature would climb into the 70s. Helping clients like Vega affirmed his decision, though it also generated no shortage of heartbreak. He went to prison for life. Hed hoped that once there he could stay a short time and workin the Permian Basin oil fields, perhapsand then return home with money for his. His stature as a political figure and a leader of law enforcement at the time made people seek him out for advice. He couldnt count on his corn harvest to yield enough food for his family, and his chia project was still unpredictable. A few years earlier, the Sinaloa and Jurez cartels had begun escalating their fight for control of billion-dollar fields of marijuana and poppy in the so-called Golden Triangle, where the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango converge in the Sierra. The result, Stinson said, was an outcome he did not entirely agree with. Silvino emerged from the forest onto a roadreally a collection of rocks and dirt. Ten minutes after six, the runners approached the starting line, adjacent to the, three-hundred-year-old red-earthen, yellow-domed Jesuit church, and took off. The former girlfriend of Preppy Killer Robert Chambers is breaking her silence about their relationship as a docuseries airing on Sundance and AMC takes a new look at the infamous murder. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. MARFA As the town slept fitfully late Dec. 3, 1991, its single traffic light blinking out a perfect pulse, shadowy figures moved through the streets, while others lurked on the outskirts. The female racers wore their everyday clothes: skirts full of reds, yellows, pinks, and blues, and matching head scarves to block the sun. He made a living in one of the harshest lands on the continent, Rogers said. . He laughed at the memory of a rarajipari when an opposing team cast a spell on his team. She shook her head in wonder. As the cartel war ricocheted from one canyon to the next, Urique became one of the last towns to be engulfed by intense violence. In the days leading up to the 2015 Ultra Caballo Blanco, an eight-hour battle erupted in a village along the planned racecourse. almost entirely dormant. They were close now, a few hours from their destination. Multinational corporations seized the merchandising opportunities, and soon, people all over the world were wearing barefoot-style shoes. His mother, Christine, didnt want to stay in Alpine because of the publicity. None of his companions had made it out. He attended school in Alpine, Texas, where he later bought a ranch. No one, even back then, would have trusted someone with that quantity of drugs, unless they had a reliable track record. He also made a cryptic remark that wounded every law enforcement agent in the Big Bend. He and his cousins would be paid 15,000 pesos ($825) apiece. True wondered how they would fare against the Tarahumara, and he sought to revitalize these local traditions. According to McNamara, Thompson mismanaged task force funds, illegally destroyed its records and grossly exaggerated its accomplishments. The downfall of Rick Thompson was such a devastating occurrence for the people of Marfa and Presidio County, that this phenomenon should be addressed, wrote the authors of the two-volume history of the community. Eagle Realty Group & Associate, (573) 336-0003. A beloved law officer had betrayed the badge, causing a tragedy of epic proportions for his family and the town. Puro Tarahumara de ahora en adelante. Unlike many of his classmates, he didnt have to wait long for work. There were comments like, I wonder how much he kept?, the sheriff said. A pair of feral dogs dozed near Silvinos feet. ), he added. This case was filed in Travis County Courts, Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse located in Travis, Texas. ROBERT D CHAMBERS Private / Unlisted Po Box 4, May, Brown County, TX-76857 Cellular: No mobile line available Edit / Delete Person *Reflects database record as of Sunday, December 25, 2022. Around the same time, federal defenders in Alpine had represented a pair of Tarahumara teenagers also recruited in Chihuahua. Tax lawyers can assist with understanding tax law and resolve tax liens, back taxes, tax debt recovery and relief, and IRS compliance issues. Back then, nationality didnt matter as much; people were simply trying to make ends meet on both sides of the Rio Grande. Robert Chambers. Two runners in their mid-twenties were planning to challenge him, and the prize for winning was significant: 14,000 pesos ($765), which, coincidentally, was nearly the going rate for running drugs across the border. Find Robert Chambers in Midland, TX - phone, address, email. In these rugged gorges, they developed a unique running style that eventually brought them fame. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. In 2003, Robert Chambers walked out of prison, after 15 years, a free man, still pursued by his own infamy. We drove up a small bluff, and Rogers led me to the grave of Boyd Chambers. Hed told me that sometimes he felt fated to stay in West Texas, and yet he often felt apart from it. It was amazing. Read more:Rickhoff kicks off Bexar County judge race with attacks on Wolff for "pay to play," art spending. Years earlier, while serving as an attach in Mexico City, Stinson had heard Mexican federal police mention Thompson in connection with the Ojinaga drug trade. Early the next morning, with only a little pain in his right leg, Silvino drove in a low gear down the canyon to Urique, listening to traditional Tarahumara folk music from a USB stick connected to the CD player. The sheriffs office in Marfa where former Sheriff Rick Thompson. Last summer, according to a courtroom interpreter, one witness in a backpacker trial in Pecos said that smugglers, It was the eighth-annual ultramarathon here, and 120 runners, mostly Tarahumara, were going to set off from its plaza. In the summer of 2016, drug traffickers moved on the town of Basihuare, near Chvezs hometown of Rejogochi, stealing the funds from the towns ejido, a government-supported agriculture cooperative. They discovered what they believed to be a large load of cocaine covered by several bales of hay and empty feed sacks, Stinson testified. Learn more about your ad choices. It didnt make sense, Vega said, and worse, it was unfair. Chambers remembers his grandfather watching the Weather Channel regularly, hoping for rain. (Courtesy of Presidio County Sheriff's Office) By Brbara Anguiano During the race, the slower runners tended to set the early pace, while the closers bided their time. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. He read about villages that had no electricity or running water and that were full of ex-felons. He accompanied her to court as an intern. He took the office after his predecessor, Sheriff Hank Hamilton, was gunned down in 1973 by a mentally unstable man. Meanwhile, budget cuts meant the number of lawyers (four) stayed the same. During the day, they slept beneath frayed creosote bushes, concealing their bags nearby, and at night they trudged north toward the freeway, avoiding rattlesnakes, coyotes, and most of all, la migra, the Border Patrol. She helped organize the largest-ever recorded rarajipari in ChihuahuaSilvino led one of the teamsand together they traveled to Brazil, in October 2015, for the inaugural World Indigenous Games. When the DEA tried to contact him, he referred them to his lawyer. For reasons that later became clear, Thompson would have nothing to do with the Drug Enforcement Administration, although he was close to other federal agents. Chambers was impressed; none of his other clients had ever commented on the injustice of the law. Thompson was president of the Sheriffs Association of Texas, headed a multi-county drug task force, and was prominent in working with federal officials in the war on drugs. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. After field tests confirmed the drug, agents hauled the trailer to Alpine. In 2006, he persuaded Scott Jurek, the top American, to travel to Urique Canyon for a trail race he was organizing that is now known as the Ultra Caballo Blanco. The female racers wore their everyday clothes: skirts full of reds, yellows, pinks, and blues, and matching head scarves to block the sun. In time, the backpackers shed come to represent were known to ask for her by name. A veteran of the DEA at the time, he had previously served in Mexico and Panama and was partner to Kiki Camarena, the DEA agent violently tortured and murdered in Mexico in 1985. 2016Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pa. 2015 Chambers Bay, University Place, Wash. 2014Pinehurst No. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. By 2015, the tiny office of the federal public defenders in Alpine was tasked with the second-largest caseload in Texas, behind El Paso. He became frustrated with the legal system, which he felt was too focused on punishing his family members for their addictions rather than helping them. Robert Chambers - Football Official - Texas Association of Sports Officials | LinkedIn Robert Chambers Environmental Engineer at Austin White Lime Company Austin, Texas, United States 735. The expected price . Dominguez, who in 1991 was hired to work out of Presidio, said he never saw the crooked side of Thompson. He messed up one time. 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