FBI, Texas Lawmen Press Hunt for 7 Prison Escapees

When seven Texas inmates tied up prison employees, stole their clothes and escaped with an arsenal of weapons earlier this month, they left a note warning: “You haven’t heard the last of us yet.”

Two weeks later, all seven are wanted in the murder of a police officer in a Christmas Eve holdup at a suburban Dallas sporting goods store about 300 miles away.

The surprising thing to investigators and experts on crime was that the convicts--who by all accounts did not even know each other before they went to prison--apparently stuck together instead of splitting up.

“They’ve generated a discipline among themselves and a loyalty that has held up since Dec. 13,” said John McAuliffe, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The escaped convicts were behind bars for murders, rapes and robberies across Texas, and were serving sentences ranging from 30 years to life in prison. They were seen as well-armed and desperate.

The FBI and state and local police departments hunted for the convicts.

“In light of the fact that Texas executes more prisoners than any other state, we have to recognize how vulnerable we are,” said Dennis Longmire, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. “These men really have nothing to lose.”

The convicts used a meticulous plan to break out of a maximum-security state prison ringed with razor wire 60 miles southeast of San Antonio.

Wearing street clothes stolen from prison employees, they bluffed their way into a guard tower, saying they needed to do maintenance work. Then they tied up a guard, stole 14 pistols, a loaded shotgun, a loaded rifle and 238 rounds of ammunition, fleeing in a stolen pickup that they ditched a few miles away.

The convicts were featured on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted” on Dec. 16, but the tips it generated did not pan out.

The next time anyone heard from the convicts was Christmas Eve, investigators said. The men are wanted in the slaying of Officer Aubry Hawkins, 29, who was shot in a robbery at a sporting goods store in Irving. Capital murder warrants were issued for all seven.

The Border Patrol was warned to be on the lookout for the men, though the convicts apparently spent the last two weeks moving north, away from the Mexican border, which is a three-hour drive from the prison.

Susie Sanchez, whose daughter was killed in a murder-for-hire arranged by one of the men in 1992, said police alerted her family about the breakout.

“I have four other daughters, and the police have told them to be cautious,” said Sanchez, whose daughter, Theresa Rodriguez, was shot in the head in a scheme by her husband to collect $400,000 in insurance money.

The husband, 38-year-old Michael Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to murder and was serving a life sentence.

Another one of the escaped convicts, 29-year-old Joseph Garcia, was serving 50 years for murder. Among the others is a serial rapist and a man who beat a 1-year-old child.

Brian Olsen, executive director of the prison guards’ union, blamed the escape of the seven on understaffing and insufficient pay and training.

“It all combines and leads to the situation that we’ve got now, a very dangerous situation,” said Olsen, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which is seeking a raise for guards.