Michael Lee McBride

Case record: Michael Lee McBride

Background

Michael Lee McBride was a bartender and moved to Lubbock to be close to Christian Fisher, who attended Texas Tech University. McBride and Fisher had been dating for about eleven months and described their relationship as “very stormy”.

Fisher’s friends expressed concern for her safety if she went to McBride’s house alone, and they accompanied her in two cars. Fisher’s mother did not like Fisher’s dating McBride and felt Fisher saw him “too frequently”. Tidwell described McBride as having a “very explosive, short tempered” personality, and stated Fisher reacted to him with fear but tried to help him.

The offence

On October 18, 1985, James Holzer, Cody Minnick, and Karen Tidwell went to Lubbock to visit Fisher. McBride was angry because Holzer and Minnick were staying in Fisher’s apartment for the weekend.

On Saturday, October 19, 1985, McBride entered Fisher’s apartment with a key and attacked Holzer as he lay sleeping on the couch. Minnick testified that McBride was screaming, “You are sleeping with my girlfriend.” Minnick intervened, and while he and Holzer wrestled with McBride, a glass bookcase was broken in Fisher’s apartment. After being subdued, McBride yelled at Fisher “to bend down and pick up” his keys. McBride picked up someone’s sunglasses, crushed them, and threw them on the floor. McBride then grabbed his own sunglasses and left.

The foursome did not hear from McBride again until Monday evening, October 21st, when he phoned Fisher. McBride and Fisher were apparently ending their relationship, and Fisher wanted some money McBride owed her. McBride told Fisher to come to his house “alone” and he would give her a painting worth the amount he owed her. Before concluding the phone call, McBride also told Fisher, “If I can't have you, nobody will.”

Fisher and Holzer parked in front of McBride’s house, while Minnick and Tidwell parked several car lengths behind them. McBride’s house was very dark and no one answered when Fisher knocked at the front door. As Fisher walked back towards the street, Minnick noticed a figure behind his car and heard a gun cock. McBride pointed a .30 caliber M-1 carbine rifle, with a 30 round clip, at Minnick and Tidwell. McBride demanded Minnick and Tidwell exit the car or else he would kill them, and he proceeded to smash out Minnick’s driver’s side window with the rifle butt. McBride fired two shots into the air, which Minnick described as “warning shots.”

McBride turned his attention toward Fisher and Holzer. Minnick escaped to a neighbor’s home for help. A neighbor of McBride’s, Patrick Potter, and Tidwell both witnessed the double homicide. Potter saw a male matching McBride’s description run past his open front door. As Potter’s dogs took chase, Potter followed and saw McBride bash out Minnick’s window. Potter returned home to tell his wife to call the police, and then went back to the scene where he heard McBride load his weapon.

Tidwell witnessed McBride and Fisher struggling with the rifle in the middle of the street immediately before McBride shot Fisher. Fisher yelled at McBride, “You won't do it.” Fisher sustained ten gunshot wounds to her face, chest, abdomen, and thigh. McBride continued to shoot Fisher at close range even after she had fallen to the ground.

After McBride murdered Fisher, he fired several shots through the windshield of her car, repeatedly striking Holzer, who was in the driver’s seat. McBride then “hopped around” to the driver’s side of the car, smashed out the window, and fired again at Holzer. At one point, McBride actually placed the rifle against Holzer’s head. Holzer sustained nine gunshot wounds; one destroyed his heart and was fatal.

McBride then shot himself under the chin; the bullet traveled through his mouth and exited his forehead.

Investigation

Police officers and EMS personnel arriving at the scene found McBride on his hands and knees on the ground apparently trying to crawl to his weapon, which several witnesses kicked away from him. McBride was violent and aggressive with the EMS personnel, resisted their efforts, and made threatening remarks and used profanity.

McBride admitted shooting Fisher and Holzer “because it was time for them to go.”

At the hospital, McBride was more cooperative and commented to a male nurse that, “if you ever need any pointers or information on how to handle your women, just let me know.”

Arrest

McBride was found at the scene and EMS personnel were involved immediately after the shootings and McBride shot himself.

Trial

McBride was indicted in the 99th District Court of Lubbock County, Texas, for the capital offense of murdering James Holzer and Christian Fisher during the same criminal transaction. The case was tried by a jury upon McBride’s plea of not guilty.

On February 11, 1988, the jury found McBride guilty of the capital offense. After a separate punishment hearing, the jury answered in the affirmative the special issues submitted, and McBride was sentenced to death in accordance with state law.

Sentencing

The jury sentenced McBride to death after answering in the affirmative the special issues submitted.

Appeals

McBride’s conviction and sentence was automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed on June 16, 1993.

McBride’s petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court on June 27, 1994.

McBride filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal district court on April 5, 1995. The district court denied habeas relief on February 16, 1996, but granted McBride permission to appeal on June 4, 1996. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of habeas relief on July 29, 1997.

McBride’s petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court on January 20, 1998.

McBride returned to state court and filed an application for writ of habeas corpus, which was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on February 16, 2000.

Outcome

McBride was executed by lethal injection in Texas on May 11, 2000.

During execution, McBride said, “God bless all of you,” and as the lethal drugs began taking effect he said, “Pretty cool, I feel it in the back of my throat. Bye.”

Prior criminal history

In the spring of 1985, at a Fort Worth bar, McBride twice punched in the face a man who had borrowed a cigarette from Fisher then ignored McBride’s directive to leave their table.

In another incident, McBride jumped an “island” in a parking lot and drove “pretty fast” toward Tidwell, who had parked in the middle of the parking lot, and tried to run over her. Tidwell stated McBride stormed into a bar where she, a friend, and Fisher were playing pool, forced Fisher to leave, and “pulled her out the door.”

Tidwell also testified that outbursts of anger were typical behavior for McBride and that in the ten months she had known McBride prior to this offense she had seen him lose his temper many times. Fisher’s mother described an occasion during that summer when McBride became belligerent with a sheriff’s deputy who did not issue a ticket to a young woman who had rear-ended Fisher’s car.

Two Lubbock police officers testified they answered an aggravated assault call at Fisher’s apartment at 4:23 a.m. just sixteen days prior to this offense. Leslie Holder, a mutual friend of the victims and McBride, testified she tried to get into Fisher’s apartment during the assault as Fisher was yelling for help. After McBride fled, Holder and Fisher found a teddy bear with its head ripped off and a threatening, profanity-laced note from McBride stuffed inside.

Earlier that same day, McBride and Holder went for a drive in McBride’s truck so that he could talk to her about problems with Fisher. Holder described the drive as short because McBride was “roaring up behind cars and then slamming on his brakes,” which scared Holder.

Holder also described an incident in Fort Worth in which McBride broke the windows in his apartment with a chair because he was angry that Fisher and Holder had gone out one evening.

In 1985, McBride became enraged and threatened a Fort Worth police officer who also worked as a security guard at the apartment complex where McBride lived when the officer answered a disturbance call. McBride threatened violence against the officer in profane and explicit terms, and threatened the officer even though the officer had identified himself as a peace officer.

A former manager of the apartment complex testified that McBride tried more than once to destroy his third floor apartment. When the manager approached McBride about a broken window, McBride reacted calmly first and then violently and threatened her. The manager later inspected the apartment in McBride’s absence and discovered fist sized holes in almost every wall, “a lot of guns,” and “a set of weights.” McBride owed $520 in damages upon moving out.

Another witness testified that in 1979 McBride drove his car through her backyard and into her garage, “knocking everything into a bedroom.” McBride emerged from the car swearing at her and threatened to sue her after she pushed him because she was upset by “his language and his attitude.”

The state also presented testimony from persons associated with McBride while he was in jail awaiting trial. Numerous incidents were detailed where McBride lost his temper, used offensive language, and/or attacked someone with little or no provocation. The evidence also showed McBride wanted to borrow an empty shampoo squeeze bottle to fill with jalapeno peppers and squirt the juice in the eyes of people who were annoying him.

The state presented three witnesses from Fort Worth who attended Texas Tech and testified that McBride’s reputation for being peaceable and law-abiding was bad. A psychiatrist testified that McBride would continue to be a threat to society.

Other details

McBride employed as a bartender at a Lubbock country club. Fisher helped him financially “all the time.” Fisher apparently was unhappy in Lubbock and was preparing to move home to Fort Worth in the near future.

A witness account described McBride as wearing camouflage clothing and carrying a semiautomatic rifle during the shootings.

Prison correspondence and statements

McBride stated: “I am Michael Lee McBride. I have been on Texas Death Row since 1988 as a result of an altercation which transpired in 1985. I have posted my information on this site because I am interested in corresponding and possibly meeting with journalists and / or media representatives not directly affiliated with news media corporations within the United States. I am not interested in supporting the US perspective as portrayed in American corporate media. University students who are interested in learning more about capital punishment per se or the perspective of Texas Death Row from a man who has lived in it for nearly 15 years are welcome to contact me as well. I shall answer each inquiry I receive and deem to be made in good faith. My ultimate desire is to bring understanding and education and to shed that that informative light into the dark corners of ignorance and prejudice. If you wish to learn more about capital punishment and the results of a sentence of death as experienced before the execution of that sentence, please write to me. With kinds regards and respect, Michael Lee McBride”

McBride’s address and unit details were provided as: “000903 Polunsky Unit D.R 12002 FM 350 South Livingston Texas 77351 USA”.

A statement attributed to McBride read: “A trial isn't a seach for truth; it's a contest to determine a winner.” Another line attributed to McBride read: “When you lose in the trial for the right for your own life, what else do you sacrifice until that time that your life ceases? And we are no longer natural born members of the human family? Is it not enough for you to simply kill me? (Michael L McBride, 11th March 2000.)”