The Texas 7 were a group of prisoners who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, on December 13, 2000. Six of the seven were apprehended over a month later, between January 22–24, 2001, as a direct result of the television show America's Most Wanted. One of the prisoners committed suicide before he could be arrested. The surviving members were all convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of police officer Aubrey Wright Hawkins, who was shot and killed when responding to a robbery committed by the Texas Seven. These are the most death sentences that have been imposed in a single case in modern American history.
Four of the six have since been executed, while one of the surviving two has been granted a new trial based on alleged judicial bias.
Members The group included the following Texas state prisoners: Joseph Christopher Garcia (November 6, 1971, in San Antonio, Texas – December 4, 2018, in Huntsville, Texas), executed."Offenders on Death Row", Texas Department of Justice. Retrieved September 1, 2017. Garcia was serving a 50-year sentence for murder for stabbing Miguel Luna to death during a drunken altercation in 1996. Randy Ethan Halprin (born September 13, 1977, in McKinney, Texas), convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 but awarded a new trial by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on November 6, 2024.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7", Crime Library. 13 . Retrieved September 27, 2009. Halprin was serving a 30-year sentence for child abuse after "[breaking] a 16-month-old's arms and legs, fracturing his skull and beating his face until one eye filled with blood." He has written about this incident in his self-published memoir Falling Down. He completed his 30-year sentence on September 5, 2026. Halprin married while incarcerated, and he got a divorce in 2010. He married again in 2026. Larry James Harper (September 10, 1963, in Danville, Illinois – January 22, 2001, in Woodland Park, Colorado), committed suicide by a gunshot to the heart before he could be captured by law enforcement.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 14 . Retrieved September 27, 2009. Harper was serving a 50-year sentence for three counts of aggravated sexual assault for beating and raping three women in El Paso. He tied up all of his victims, including one to a tree. Harper committed the rapes after being rejected by a woman. Patrick Henry Murphy Jr. (born October 3, 1961, in Dallas, Texas), on death row awaiting execution."Offenders on Death Row". Texas Department of Justice.. Retrieved June 22, 2019. Murphy was serving a 50-year sentence for breaking into the apartment of a high school acquaintance in 1984, covering her head with a pillowcase, and raping her at knifepoint. He had previously been dishonorably discharged from the Army. Donald Keith Newbury (May 18, 1962, in Albuquerque, New Mexico – February 4, 2015, in Huntsville, Texas), executed.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library.11 . Retrieved September 27, 2009. Newbury was serving a 99-year sentence aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. In 1998, he walked into an Austin hotel with a sawed-off shotgun and demanded money from a clerk. The clerk was not injured. Newbury had two separate prior convictions for aggravated robbery. George Angel Rivas Jr. (May 6, 1970, in El Paso, Texas – February 29, 2012, in Huntsville, Texas), executed. Rivas, the mastermind of the escape, was serving 18 life sentences for 13 counts of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of burglary of a habitation. Rivas was convicted of a string of intricately planned robberies involving the use of disguises and walkie-talkies.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 16. Retrieved September 27, 2009. He married a Canadian woman by proxy. Rivas had once aspired to be a police officer. Michael Anthony Rodriguez (October 29, 1962, in San Antonio, Texas – August 14, 2008, in Huntsville, Texas), executed. Rodriguez was serving a life sentence for capital murder for hiring Rolando Ruiz to murder his wife Theresa in 1992. Also convicted were Rodriguez's brother Mark, Joe Ramon and Robert Silva. An alumnus of Central Catholic Marianist High School, Rodriguez had taken teacher training classes at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University). Rodriguez's father, Raul Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to escape and providing implements for escape and elected to have a jury determine his sentence. He was sentenced to 10 years for escape and 5 years for providing implements for escape and fined $10,000 for each of the convictions. A later appeal was rejected in 2006.
Escape On December 13, 2000, the seven carried out an elaborate scheme and escaped from the John B. Connally Unit, a maximum-security state prison near the South Texas city of Kenedy."Mastermind of Texas Seven prison escape, officer's slaying to be executed." The Dallas Morning News, February 28, 2012.
At the time of the breakout, the reported ringleader of the Texas Seven, 30-year-old George Rivas, was serving 18 consecutive 15-to-life sentences. Michael Anthony Rodriguez, 38, was serving a 99-to-life term for contracting the murder of his wife by Rolando Ruiz Jr., who was later executed for the crime on March 7, 2017. Larry James Harper, 37, Joseph Garcia, 29, and Patrick Henry Murphy Jr., 39, were all serving 50-year sentences. Donald Keith Newbury, 38, the member with the longest rap sheet in the group, was serving a 99-year sentence. The youngest member, Randy Halprin, 23, was serving a 30-year sentence for injury to a child."A Jewish man was sentenced to death by an antisemitic judge, the court finds. Now, he could get a second chance". By Jaclyn Peiser for The Washington Post. Published Oct. 13, 2021 https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/A-Jewish-man-was-sentenced-to-death-by-an-16529258.php
At around 11:20 a.m. the seven men overpowered prison workers and guards, took the latter’s uniforms, stole 14 handguns, a shotgun, an AR-15 rifle and more than 100 rounds of ammunition before fleeing north in a prison truck. The victims were left unconscious and tied up inside an electrical room."Texas executes Joseph Garcia, one of the "Texas Seven" prison escapees", ksat.com. Accessed March 26, 2025. Rodriguez's father, Raul, had provided the men a getaway car. For this act, he was later convicted of escape and providing implements for escape.Graczyk, Michael. "'I've done horrible things': 1st 'Texas 7' escapee executed" (Archive). Houston Chronicle, August 14, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
A Crime Library article about the seven compared the breakout to the June 1962 Alcatraz escape that occurred decades earlier.King, Gary C."The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 6. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
Crime spree and Officer Aubrey Hawkins
The white prison truck was found in the Walmart parking lot in Kenedy, Texas. The Texas Seven first entered San Antonio right after breaking out of the complex.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 8. Retrieved September 27, 2009. Realizing that they were running out of funds, they robbed a Radio Shack in Pearland, Texas, in Greater Houston, the following day.King, Gary C. "The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 9. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
On December 19, four of the members checked into an Econo Lodge motel in Farmers Branch, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, under assumed names. They decided to rob a Sports Authority in nearby Irving. On December 24, 2000, they entered the store, bound and gagged all the staff, and stole at least 40 guns and sets of ammunition, including $70,000 from the store's safe. An ex-employee in her car outside the store noticed the commotion inside and called the police. Irving police officer Aubrey Wright Hawkins"Officer Aubrey Wright Hawkins #830." City of Irving. August 27, 2008. Retrieved on January 8, 2019. (February 23, 1971 – December 24, 2000) responded to the call and, upon arriving at the scene, was almost immediately ambushed, being shot 11 times and run over by the escaped convicts as they fled the scene. Hawkins died at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas shortly after his arrival.King, Gary C."The Daring Escape of the Texas 7." Crime Library. 18. Retrieved September 27, 2009. Hawkins had been an officer with the Irving police department since October 4, 1995, and was married and had a son.
Capture
Following an episode of the television show America's Most Wanted that first aired on January 20, 2001, several people phoned in possible sightings of the suspects at the Coachlight Motel and R.V. Park in Woodland Park, Colorado. They had apparently tried to pass themselves off as missionaries, playing loud Christian music within earshot of their neighbors.
The El Paso County Sheriff's Office, Colorado, and Teller County Deputies SWAT team found Garcia, Rodriguez, and Rivas in a Jeep Cherokee in the RV Park, before following them to a nearby gas station where they were arrested, and later found Halprin and Harper in an RV; Halprin surrendered peacefully, but Harper was found dead after a standoff, having shot himself in the chest with a pistol. The surviving four were taken into federal custody.
On January 23, 2001, the FBI received information that the remaining two escapees, Newbury and Murphy, were hiding in a Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A deal was brokered with the two, allowing them to make live TV appearances before they were arrested. Media was tipped off when a guest asked KKTV chief photographer Mike Petkash and reporter Jeannette Hinds why he could not get to the hotel. The pair drove to the hotel, finding it flooded with law enforcement. In the early hours of January 24, a local KKTV television anchorman, Eric Singer, was taken into the hotel where he interviewed the two by telephone while on camera. Newbury and Murphy harshly denounced the criminal justice system in Texas, with Newbury adding, "the system is as corrupt as we are."News, ABC. "Transcript of Escapees' Interview." ABC News. ABC News Network, January 24, 2001.
Convictions and executions
In 2008, authorities indicted Patsy Gomez and Raul Rodriguez, the parents of Michael Rodriguez, for conspiring to help the Texas Seven."Accomplice to Texas Seven prison escapees indicted in gun charges." Associated Press at The Dallas Morning News. May 24, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
George Rivas, the ringleader, was the first to be brought to trial; he was convicted and sentenced to death. Subsequently, the other five surviving members of the Texas Seven were brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to death.
Rodriguez announced that he wished to forgo further appeal beyond the mandatory death-penalty appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation in January 2007 concluded that he was mentally competent to decide to forgo further appeals. Twenty months later, he became the first of the six surviving members to be executed on August 14, 2008"'Texas 7' Fugitive Who Dropped Appeals Executed." Associated Press at Fox News. Thursday August 14, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2009. by lethal injection.
George Rivas was executed by lethal injection on February 29, 2012. Donald Newbury was executed by lethal injection on February 4, 2015. Rolando Ruiz, who was involved in Rodriguez's previous murder conviction, was executed by lethal injection on March 7, 2017. Joseph Garcia was executed by lethal injection on December 4, 2018. The bodies of Harper, Rodriguez, Newbury, and Garcia are buried at Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery.