Midland, Texas – An oil field company and a company executive have been charged with Death by poisonous gas 2019 of a worker and his wife.
A federal grand jury in Midland charged Odessa-based Aghorn Operating Inc. and Aghorn’s vice president Trent Day with violating federal clean air laws and obstructing a federal job security investigation, according to a Justice Department statement Tuesday.
He and an Aghorn associate were also accused of making false statements on federal safe water laws and forms documenting the mechanical integrity of Aghorn’s injection wells.
Aghorn was also charged with three job security offenses leading to the death.
Jacob and Natalie Dean died on October 26, 2019After inhaling hydrogen sulfide gas at an Aghorn pump house in Odessa.
According to the Actor County Sheriff’s Office, Aghorn officers sent Jacob Dean to investigate the facility. When he did not return as expected, his wife tried to get in touch with him over the phone but got no response.
She went to the Pump House with her two children, aged 6 and 9. She got out of the vehicle to approach the pump house and was also overcome with colourless, highly corrosive gas upon entering the building. The children were left in the car and were not harmed.
A receptionist for Aghorn said the company would not comment. A law firm that has represented Aghorn in the past did not immediately return a message seeking comment.