Texas Parolee Jailed; D.A. Says He Killed for Thrills

A murder parolee killed 11 people for their money or just the “thrill of killing,” authorities said as the man was jailed Tuesday, charged in six of the slayings.

“Robbery was the motive in at least some of these. But in others, it was just the thrill of killing,” said Greg Davis, a Dallas County assistant district attorney.

Juan Rodriguez Chavez, 27, was being held in lieu of $600,000 bond, charged with capital murder, which could bring the death penalty. Prosecutors were preparing to charge him in the five other killings.

All 11 people were killed between March and July, including five on July 2.

The first two victims, in March and May, were shot to death.

On July 2, three people were shot and run over by a car, a man was shot while he talked on a pay phone and a fifth person was killed in another apparent robbery.

Two days later, two men were shot in the head in the parking lot of a tire shop, and a third man was fatally wounded moments later outside a nearby apartment.

The final killing came July 23, in an apparent carjacking.

Police say one .38-caliber revolver has been linked to six of the slayings, and a 15-year-old boy, now in custody of juvenile authorities, knows Chavez and could provide information on at least one of the slayings. Davis declined to discuss details, citing concern for the youth’s safety.

Davis said he has not decided whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison or whether to try Chavez on each charge separately. Chavez, a high school dropout, was on probation on an aggravated robbery conviction and had spent nine years of a 15-year sentence in state prison before his 1994 parole on a murder sentence.