A federal judge sent a 22-year-old Premont man to prison for five years on July 8. Damian "Diablo" Rodriguez had a gun with the serial number scratched off. Investigators say he used that same gun to try to kill two people in December 2025. One of them was a local police officer.
This case hits close to home for Jim Wells County. Premont is a small town about 20 miles south of Alice, Texas. Most people there know each other. A federal gun charge here turned into a story about two attempts to take a life. One target was a neighbor. The other was an officer sworn to protect this same community.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas laid out the timeline in a news release. Rodriguez posted threats against both people on social media. He named his targets before he ever went looking for them.
Then he acted on those threats. Prosecutors say Rodriguez tried to find and shoot a local resident on December 29, 2025. Two days later, on December 31, he tried to find and shoot the police officer.
Rodriguez was not charged with attempted murder in this case. The charge that put him behind bars was possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. That means the gun's ID number had been scratched or filed off so police could not trace it. But prosecutors tied that same gun straight to both attempts on human lives in December.
A federal judge handed down the five-year sentence on July 8. The court also ordered three years of probation once Rodriguez finishes his prison time. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas announced the sentence in a news release.
A gun with the serial number scratched off is illegal to own, no matter who has it. Police cannot trace a gun like that back to a shooting or a straw sale. That makes these guns a favorite tool for people who do not want to get caught.
Threats against a police officer carry extra weight in federal court. An officer under threat is a danger sign for the whole community that officer protects. Jim Wells County and the wider Coastal Bend depend on local police to respond to calls every day. A gunman hunting an officer puts that whole system at risk.
Premont and Jim Wells County fall under the Corpus Christi Division of the Southern District of Texas. That is the same federal court district that handled this case and announced the sentence.
Federal cases like this one usually move slower than state charges. Federal court schedules run through Corpus Christi and other Southern District of Texas cities. A case that starts with threats posted online in December can still take months to reach a sentencing hearing in July.
Federal prison time also works different from state time. There is no parole in the federal system. Rodriguez will have to serve most of his five years before he can go home. That is stricter than many state sentences for similar charges.
Rodriguez is now serving his five-year federal sentence. When he gets out, he will spend three more years on probation under federal supervision. Any violation during that probation could send him back to prison.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has not said whether more charges are coming. It is not clear from the news release if the resident or the officer were ever hurt. El Tejano will update this story if new details come out from federal or Jim Wells County authorities.
