Patrick Henry Murphy

Case identifiers

Patrick Henry Murphy, Jr. TDCJ Number: 999461 Date of birth: 10/03/1961 Education level: 09 Age at receipt: 42 Age at the offense: 39 Gender: Male Race: White Hair color: Grey Eye color: Hazel Height: 05'07" Weight: 212

Background

Murphy had a prior prison record: #386888 on a 50 year sentence from Dallas County for aggravated sexual assault. On 12/13/2000, Murphy escaped from custody. Prior occupation included maintenance, carpenter, and laborer. Murphy was a native of Dallas, Texas.

The offence

On 12/24/2000, in Irving, Texas, Murphy and six codefendants fatally shot a 31 year old white male police officer while on escape from the TDCJ Connally Unit.

Victim

White/Male police officer, age 31.

Investigation

The Texas 7 was a group of prisoners who escaped from the John Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas on December 13, 2000. They were apprehended January 21-23, 2001 as a direct result of the television show America's Most Wanted. The group included:

• Joseph C. Garcia
• Randy Ethan Halprin
• Larry James Harper (deceased by suicide)
• Donald Keith Newbury
• Patrick Henry Murphy, Jr.
• George Rivas (ringleader)
• Michael Anthony Rodriguez (executed in 2008)

Planning and personnel restrained during escape

Using several well-planned ploys, the seven convicts overpowered and restrained nine civilian maintenance supervisors, four correctional officers and three uninvolved inmates at approximately 11:20 a.m. The escape occurred during the slowest period of the day when there would be less surveillance of certain locations like the maintenance area — during lunch and at count time.

The source described plans in which one of the offenders would call someone over, while another hit the unsuspecting person on the head from behind. After a victim was subdued, the offenders removed some clothing, tied the victim up, gagged the victim, and placed the victim in an electrical room behind a locked door. The attackers stole clothing, credit cards, and identification from their victims. The group impersonated prison officers on the phone and created false stories to ward off suspicion from authorities.

Breakout actions at the prison

After that, three of the group made their way to the back gate of the prison, some disguised in stolen civilian clothing. They pretended to be there to install video monitors. One guard at the gatehouse was subdued, and the trio raided the guard tower and stole numerous weapons. Meanwhile, the four offenders who stayed behind made calls to the prison tower guards to distract them.

They then stole a prison maintenance pick-up truck, which they drove to the back gate of the prison, picked up their cohorts, and drove away from the prison.

Arrest and capture

Sequence of apprehension

A friend of Wade Holder, the owner of the Coachlight Motel and R.V. Park in Woodland Park, Colorado, watched the television program America's Most Wanted on January 20, 2001 and told Wade that they were staying in his RV Park. Wade believed the Texas 7, who were being compared to Angel Maturino Resendiz, were in his trailer park. When he confirmed this, he reported the suspicious activities to local authorities the next day on January 21.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Department SWAT team found Garcia, Rodriguez, and Rivas in a Jeep Cherokee in the RV Park. Authorities captured them at a nearby gas station. Halprin and Harper were found in an RV; Halprin surrendered peacefully, but Harper was found dead after a standoff. The source said Harper had shot himself in the chest and left temple with a pistol. The surviving four members were taken into police custody.

On January 23, they received information on the whereabouts of the last two. The last two were hiding out in a Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A deal brokered between Newbury and Murphy allowed them to make live TV appearances before they were arrested.

Interview before arrest

In the early hours of January 24, a local KKTV television anchorman, Eric Singer, was taken into the hotel where on camera he interviewed the two by telephone. Both Newbury and Murphy harshly denounced the criminal justice system in Texas, with Newbury adding: "the system is as corrupt as we are."

Authorities later found out that a woman named Patsy Gomez conspired with a man named Raul Rodriguez, the father of Michael Rodriguez, to help the Texas 7.

Crime spree

Vehicle and movement

The white prison truck was found in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Kenedy, Texas. The Texas 7 first went into San Antonio right after breaking out of the complex. Realizing that they were running out of funds, they robbed a Radio Shack in Pearland, Texas the next day on December 14 at around 2 AM.

Radio Shack burglary details

To bypass store security, they entered an adjacent computer software store, where they knocked down the flimsy sheetrock wall to the other side. Once inside and undetected, they tethered the Radio Shack safe to their truck and dragged the large safe outside of the building, causing damage to the parking lot and pavement.

Motel check-in and sporting goods robbery

On December 19, four of the members checked into an Econo Lodge motel in Farmers Branch, Texas (under assumed names). They decided to rob an Oshman's Sporting Goods in nearby Irving, Texas.

On December 24, 2000, they held up the store and stole 44 guns.

Murder of the police officer

A customer standing outside the store noticed the commotion inside and called police. Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins responded to the call and was almost immediately ambushed. The source said his autopsy would show that he had sustained eleven gunshots and his body had been run over by the fleeing gang.

After Hawkins' murder, a $100,000 reward was offered to whoever could snare the group of criminals, and the reward would climb to $500,000 before the group was apprehended.

People

Murphy and codefendants

Murphy and six codefendants were described as fatally shooting the 31 year old white male police officer in Irving, Texas. The codefendants named were Joseph Garcia, George Rivas, Randy Halprin, Larry Harper, Michael Rodriguez, and Donald Newberry.

Other named individuals

• Wade Holder, owner of the Coachlight Motel and R.V. Park in Woodland Park, Colorado
• Eric Singer, a local KKTV television anchorman
• Patsy Gomez
• Raul Rodriguez, father of Michael Rodriguez
• George Rivas, sentenced to death after being extradited to Texas
• Harper, deceased by suicide
• Aubrey Hawkins, Irving police officer killed during the robbery

Sentencing

Murphy was sentenced to death on November 20, 2003.

Subsequent death-row status described for group members

Since then, the other five surviving members of the Texas 7 were described as being put on death row alongside Rivas and awaiting death by lethal injection. The source stated that Michael Anthony Rodriguez announced he would like to waive all appeals in order to hasten his death sentence. A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation ordered in January 2007 determined he was competent to waive all appeals, and Rodriguez was executed on August 14, 2008.

Appeals

A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation was ordered in January 2007, and it determined that Michael Anthony Rodriguez was competent to waive all appeals.

Outcome

Aftermath

In 2007, Wild Dream Films produced The Hunt For The Texas 7, a 90-minute feature documentary about the prison break. The film aired in late September 2008 on MSNBC. The film featured interviews with members of The Texas 7 currently on Death Row and eyewitnesses. The story of the Texas 7 was chronicled in the Food Will Win the War song "TX7".