A Jeff Davis County grand jury has declined to indict Maxie Slover in the death of Valentine resident Gary Morton, who died on August 2, 2025, from injuries he suffered in a bar fight. The grand jury met on April 22.
Slover, also a Valentine resident, got into a fight with Morton the evening of August 2 at the Valentine Bar on W. Highway 90. A security video inside the bar showed the men scuffle and Morton fall to the floor, but he got up and followed Slover out of the bar’s front door to continue the fight. No video was available outside the bar, so it is uncertain what happened next, although the result was Morton hospitalized the next day in an El Paso intensive care unit, where he never recovered from his injuries.
83rd Assistant District Attorney Bill Parhem said last summer that it was still unclear what charges might be filed against Slover, but that he intended to take the case—which was investigated by the Texas Rangers—to a grand jury. Grand jury deliberations are closed to the public, and police records, other than date and time of the incident, are publicly available. Parhem did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Morton’s wife, Lisa, who works for the Van Horn Advocate newspaper, said Slover had been a continual source of contention and confrontation with them over the years. The couple went to the Jeff Davis County Sheriff’s Office and got a “Notice of Criminal Trespass” filed—a document signed by Slover notifying him that he would be arrested if he entered the Morton’s property.
Morton, a Valentine native, was 62 when he died. Slover could not be reached for comment.
