Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis harlani) Melanistic bird with signs of some leucism. Caesar of birdforum believes this to be Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, subspecies harlani. I appreciate his expertise and have added this subspecies name.
I think this bird it is a Harlan's Hawk. B. j. harlani. They winter over in Eastern Texas this time of year and many of them have gray/rufous mottled tails like this one has.
Wheeler's "Raptors of Western North America" shows a very similar bird at plate #393. It is a dark intermediate morph like yours with"medium dark/gray type" mottled tail like the one on your bird.
If you could confirm Bob's thoughts on the subspecies of this guy, I'll upload your picture to The Opus, as we do not have an image of that one in the article.
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