Manhunt Intensifies for Escaped Texas Convicts

A sophisticated but vicious armed robber appears to be the leader of seven escaped Texas prisoners suspected of murdering a policeman, authorities said Thursday--and they fear the escapees might be planning a violent showdown with police.

A Christmas Eve heist in Irving, Texas, in which Officer Aubrey Hawkins was slain, bore marked similarities to the El Paso robberies that landed escapee George Rivas in jail in 1994. Rivas, 34, whom El Paso prosecutor Marcos Lizarraga once called “the most dangerous man in Texas,” had led a group of thugs posing as security guards in at least half a dozen robberies.

Since the Irving officer’s slaying, leads have poured in to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice from South Texas to Fort Worth. Every law enforcement agency in the state is participating in a massive manhunt, from small-town police departments to the Texas Rangers, said David Clark, a Dallas Police Department detective.

Now Rivas and six others, all serving sentences of 30 years to life, are at large with warm clothes, apparent outside help and as many as 40 guns.

The combination raises the specter of a violent standoff, said FBI spokesman Lori Bailey.

“Certainly we’re all concerned about that,” she said. “They have quite a cache of weapons and ammunition and they’re obviously not afraid to use them.”

Escape From Prison Was Well Coordinated

On Dec. 13, Rivas and his companions combined guile and violence to overcome 11 civilians and inmates and finally a watchtower guard before fleeing from the maximum security prison in Kenedy. Taking guns from the tower, the seven escaped in a state-owned car, later swapping it for another that authorities think was supplied by accomplices.

Amazed by the group’s organization and coherence, officials said that the breakout may have been planned for as long as six months.

“You haven’t heard the last of us,” one of the escapees said in a note left in his cell.

Still together, the group resurfaced on Christmas Eve, in an elaborate robbery of an Oshman’s sporting goods store in Irving, a Dallas suburb. Dressed as security guards, three of the inmates approached a 17-year-old employee in the store’s parking lot at closing time, announcing that they were investigating a car break-in.

The employee, Tony Coronado, said that the three yelled, “Everybody, hands in the air!” after they had entered the store with him, according to an account in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Communicating on walkie-talkies with code names such as gato (Spanish for cat) and jefe (chief), the band tied and handcuffed 23 employees. They stole new clothes, $70,000 in cash and at least 25 new weapons.

Officer on Scene Killed by Gang

Officer Aubrey met the seven as they fled the building. He was shot and his gun was taken. The suspects then ran over him as they fled in the store manager’s sport utility vehicle, authorities said.

Rivas’ earlier criminal career was recalled by Al Velarde, a spokesman for the El Paso police. “During the robberies, Rivas was very calm, very cool. He appeared as if he truly knew what he was doing.”

But in his last El Paso robbery, Rivas also resisted authorities beyond all reasonable hope of success. After a three-hour siege, a police SWAT team, including dozens of officers, burst into the store Rivas and his gang had robbed. Rivas and his cohorts were crouched in a rooftop air conditioner, still hoping to escape. Rivas later was sentenced to 99 years for aggravated kidnapping and robbery.

Since the escape, patrol officers in southwest Dallas were being encouraged to arm themselves with shotguns as well as sidearms. In Fort Worth, detectives who investigate crimes against children now are carrying guns and locking the doors of interview rooms, said Jay Lapham, an attorney at the Tarrant County district attorney’s office. One escapee was convicted in a child beating there.

Meanwhile, authorities are providing FBI profilers with details about each escapee, hoping that the group and its structure can be better understood.

Particularly astonishing, experts said, is that the escapees apparently have stayed together--uncaught--for so long. Behind bars for crimes including murder, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and injury to a child, the seven apparently first met in prison. All of them worked there in a maintenance shop.

Although no one can be certain that the escapees are still together, many law enforcement authorities believe that they are. Some officials said that the escapees may intend to remain in the urban environment near Dallas since they stole clothing but no camping gear. And, because all have roots in Texas, including the Dallas area, it is likely that they are nearby, the FBI’s Bailey said.

“If they had any sense they’d break up, to minimize capture,” said Virginia criminologist Robert K. Ressler, a 20-year veteran of the FBI’s behavioral science unit. “When you get seven people involved like this, the only thing it tells me is there’s got to be one strong leader here. One leader, pretty much a criminal psychopath. A guy willing to break out of jail, kill a police officer--clearly with no limits to how far he can go.”

Unity of Group Could Fall Apart

While the escapees’ cohesion is highly unusual, it could fall apart because of conflict, Ressler said.

“If one of the seven is a strong leader and you get another strong leader type, one individual could challenge the other,” he said.

Those who escaped with Rivas are Joseph Garcia, 29, San Antonio; Randy Ethan Halprin, 23, Arlington; Larry James Harper, 37, El Paso; Patrick Henry Murphy Jr., 39, Dallas; Donald Keith Newbury, 38, Austin, and Michael Anthony Rodriguez, 38, San Antonio.

The escapee gang summons memories of other highly organized fugitive groups, including Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who helped four friends escape from a Texas prison in 1934 and seven death row inmates who broke out of prison two years ago.

In both cases, the fugitives met bloody ends. Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed in a famous shootout soon after the jailbreak. And only one of the 1998 death row escapees made it over the prison fence. He didn’t get far. He was found dead a few days after his escape, drowned in a river under the weight of the cardboard armor he had worn to protect himself from razor wire as he scrambled over the prison fence.

Overall, Texas prisons have the lowest escape rate and the highest rate of recapture in the country. In the last 16 years, 275 inmates have escaped--and only one, until now, remains still at large.

It’s cold comfort to the hundreds of lawmen trying to divine what Rivas and his companions will do next.

“The most important thing is that the public is aware that these guys are out there and they’re extremely dangerous,” said the FBI’s Bailey. “It’s a volatile situation.”

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Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this story.