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Houston attorney suing ERCOT, Entergy after 11-year-old died during winter storm

11 boy death conroe cristian pavon
Posted at 1:03 PM, Feb 21, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-21 14:03:35-05

CONROE, TX — A Houston attorney said he's filing a lawsuit against ERCOT and Entergy on behalf of a Conroe family whose 11-year-old son died during the cold this week after losing power.

According to KTRK, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee is filing a lawsuit against ERCOT and Entergy.

Court documents released Saturday stated the family and Buzbee believe those companies owe over $100,000,000 plus court fees after Cristian's death.

"And other suits will come," Buzbee told KTRK. "These decisions, which led to deaths, were made based on profit, not welfare of people. People died. ERCOT and the electrical providers like Entergy must account."

Cristian Pavon was sleeping late Tuesday under a pile of blankets, his mother, Maria Elisa Pineda, believed. She told Univision her son was known to be a late sleeper.

But when she nudged him, Cristian didn’t move. They called 911 and started CPR on the boy. He was pronounced dead Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators say the family’s mobile home had been without power for a few days as temperatures dipped to single digits overnight, according to the Washington Post.

His mother said the night before her son seemed fine, telling the media Cristian had dinner, played and then went to bed.

During the night, the family told KTRK, Cristian’s stepfather woke up briefly, checked on the boys to make sure they were OK, and went back to sleep.

Cristian shared a bed with his younger sibling, who is reportedly OK.

Cristian's official cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

The family plans to send Cristian’s body back to his home country of Honduras for burial. He came to Texas in 2019 to reunite with his mother.

ERCOT released the following statement to KTRK on Saturday: "We haven't yet reviewed the lawsuits and will respond accordingly once we do. Our thoughts are with all Texans who have and are suffering due to this past week. However, because approximately 46% of privately-owned generation tripped offline this past Monday morning, we are confident that our grid operators made the right choice to avoid a statewide blackout."

Entergy told KTRK: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of life in our community. We are unable to comment due to pending litigation."