Frederick Patrick McWilliams

Case identifiers

Frederick Patrick McWilliams

STATUS

McWilliams was executed by lethal injection in Texas on November 10, 2004.

Timeline

• September 28, 1996 — McWilliams and two accomplices drove to a Houston apartment complex where Alfonso Rodriguez was asleep inside his parked car; Adams pulled Rodriguez from the car at gunpoint, Rodriguez was beaten, and McWilliams and Adams attempted to put Rodriguez in the trunk of the car; after Rodriguez resisted, McWilliams shot Rodriguez once in the head at point-blank range; Rodriguez died; Adams and McWilliams stole Rodriguez’s car while Hawkins drove away in Adams’ car.
• September 9, 1997 — A jury found McWilliams guilty of capital murder.
• September 9, 1997 — McWilliams received a death sentence following a separate punishment hearing.
• March 10, 1999 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed McWilliams’ conviction and sentence.
• April 4, 2001 — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied McWilliams’ application for writ of habeas corpus.
• August 15, 2003 — The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied McWilliams’ request to appeal denial of habeas petition.
• March 1, 2004 — McWilliams’ petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court.
• November 10, 2004 — McWilliams was executed by lethal injection.
• 6:18 p.m. — McWilliams was pronounced dead.

The offence

On the night of September 28, 1996, McWilliams and Kenneth Adams and Richard Hawkins drove to a Houston apartment complex to steal a car. McWilliams and Adams discussed stealing a car after earlier approaches to a man sleeping inside a brown car. Adams and McWilliams returned carrying guns, and Adams pulled Alfonso Rodriguez from the driver’s side at gunpoint while McWilliams rummaged through the glove compartment. Adams beat Rodriguez with the butt of the gun while Rodriguez was lying on the ground attempting to cover his head. Adams and McWilliams then attempted to force Rodriguez into the trunk of the car. Richard Hawkins did not want to be part of the robbery and jumped into the driver’s seat of Adams’ car and drove away. As Hawkins was leaving, he heard a shot. A few minutes later, McWilliams and Adams caught up to Hawkins in Rodriguez’s car and waved Hawkins to pull over. Adams was covered in blood and told Hawkins, “Your cousin wild. He wild. He shot a man.”

After the killing, Adams and McWilliams stole Rodriguez’s car. Hawkins had already driven off in Adams’ car.

A .38-caliber slug at point blank range killed Rodriguez, and the gun that killed him was identified as one of the firearms found during the later search of Adams’ car.

Investigation

A week later, Adams was stopped for speeding. A search of the car yielded several firearms, including one identified as the gun that killed Rodriguez. During questioning by investigating officers, Adams confessed and implicated McWilliams.

After McWilliams was arrested, he gave two statements: in his first statement, McWilliams claimed that Adams shot Rodriguez; in his second statement, McWilliams admitted to shooting Rodriguez.

Investigation involved Garcia, Houston police investigators John Swaim and Phil Waters, and Texas Ranger Bryant Wells, resulting in suspects’ arrests over the prior three weeks in Katy and Houston.

Arrest and detention

A group of suspects was arrested in connection with robberies; McWilliams was listed as charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and was in the Harris County Jail. Adams was described as charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and held in the Galveston County Jail. Hawkins was described as charged with aggravated robbery and held in the Waller County Jail. Keith Price was also identified as charged with aggravated robbery and held in the Harris County Jail. James Patrick Tanner was still being sought on aggravated robbery charges.

Trial

McWilliams was indicted by a Harris County grand jury for the capital murder of Alfonso Rodriguez.

• November 15, 1996 — Harris County grand jury indicted McWilliams for the capital murder of Alfonso Rodriguez.

A jury found McWilliams guilty of capital murder.

• September 4, 1997 — A jury found McWilliams guilty of capital murder in state court in Harris County, Texas.

McWilliams was sentenced to death following a separate punishment hearing.

• September 9, 1997 — Following a separate punishment hearing, McWilliams was sentenced to death.

At trial, testimony included Hawkins’s account that McWilliams and Adams went back armed to the apartment complex and that Hawkins drove away when he decided he did not want to be part of a robbery; Hawkins testified that he heard a shot and later saw McWilliams and Adams driving Rodriguez’s car and waving him to pull over. The jury also heard McWilliams’s statements that differed across his two statements to investigators.

Sentencing

McWilliams was sentenced to death following a punishment hearing.

• September 9, 1997 — McWilliams received a death sentence.

Appeals

McWilliams pursued state and federal habeas and appeals.

• July 22, 1998 — McWilliams filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the state trial court.
• April 3, 2002 — McWilliams filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus in a Houston U.S. District Court.
• December 31, 2002 — The federal court dismissed habeas petition and denied a certificate of appealability.
• March 28, 2003 — McWilliams requested permission to appeal from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
• September 5, 2003 — McWilliams filed a petition for rehearing on his application for certificate of appealability.
• September 22, 2003 — The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the petition for rehearing.
• December 18, 2003 — McWilliams petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari.

Citations included:

• McWilliams v. Cockrell, 74 Fed. Appx. 345 (5th Cir. 2003) (Habeas)
• McWilliams v. Dretke, 124 S.Ct. 1513 (2004) (Cert. Denied)

Other defendants and outcomes

Kenneth Adams received a life sentence. Richard Hawkins was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Offender details

McWilliams was identified as:

• 30 years old at execution in Texas
• 22 years old at sentencing in September 1997
• 22 in the reporting about the capital murder sentence
• 22 at the time he was arrested for the case

Prior criminal history included:

• McWilliams received probation (deferred adjudication) for an August 1993 aggravated robbery.
• McWilliams was convicted for evading arrest in a September 1994 incident.
• McWilliams participated in the commission of several robberies leading up to and following the capital murder of Alfonso Rodriguez, including:
  • September 9, 1996 — robbery of Dan’s Food Market in Brookshire.
  • September 24, 1996 — robbery of Lucy’s Cantina in Houston.
  • October 3, 1996 — robbery of the Brookshire Brothers Grocery Store in Brookshire.

In reporting, McWilliams was described as having been on probation when he was arrested for the beating and shooting of Alfonso Rodriguez at a Houston apartment complex.

Victim details

Alfonso Rodriguez was killed during a car theft/robbery attempt. He was described as:

• 39-year-old in some reporting.
• Named as Alfonso Rodriguez (also referred to as Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. in some reporting).

Final meal

McWilliams requested fried chicken breasts, lasagna, egg rolls, shrimp fried rice, chimichangas, turkey with liver and gizzard dressing, dirty rice, cranberry sauce and lemonade.

Last statement

McWilliams made the following last statement:

“Well, here we are again folks in the catacombs of justice.” He said there was much he wanted to say but “not a whole to say.” “There are people that will be mad thinking I try to seek freedom from this, but as long as I see, freedom belongs to me and I’ll keep on keeping on. The shackles and chains that just might hold my body can’t hold my mind, but will kill me otherwise.”
Addressing his mother and family members who attended, McWilliams said, “I leave my love here. I am never going to stop loving you. My love is going to stay here.”

McWilliams was also asked by the warden if he had a final statement and responded with:

“Well, here we are again folks in the catacombs of justice”
He said there was much he wanted to say but “not a whole to say.”
“There are people that will be mad thinking I try to seek freedom from this, but as long as I see, freedom belongs to me and I’ll keep on keeping on,” he said.
“The shackles and chains that just might hold my body can’t hold my mind, but will kill me otherwise.”
McWilliams then told his mother, who watched through a window a few feet away, a sister and several friends that he loved them and would never stop.

Other details

McWilliams made additional remarks about his attempted avoidance of a malicious intent to kill and described a struggle and the gun going off. His remarks included:

“We were struggling, and the gun went off and took his life. I can’t truthfully tell whether he pulled the trigger or I did. My hand was on top of his hand, and his hand was on top of mine. It was a two or three-second dance of death, but it seemed to go on forever ... I’m innocent in the sense I didn’t maliciously, knowingly, intentionally cause his death. I never intended to kill anybody.”
“If none of this happened, I’d have been dead at age 25,” he said.
“I never enjoyed doing things like that ... I just felt in a helpless situation at the time ... Life was always against me. The forces of life were against me.”
“My thought, if worse comes to worse, is that my soul will go to a higher plane. I will have a choice of whether to come back to Earth or move up to that higher place,” he said.
“I don’t know what I’ll do. It depends on what’s in my best interest.”

A statement attributed to Melchor Hernandez and Richard Hernandez after watching McWilliams die included:

“It proves to me that there is justice,” Melchor Hernandez, a half-brother of Rodriguez, said after watching McWilliams die.
“I’m grateful the state of Texas has the death penalty,” Richard Hernandez, another half-brother, added.
“I knew this day was going to come. We’re just pleased it’s done with.”

Additional personal details included:

• McWilliams was described as a former warehouse worker.
• McWilliams’s middle name was Patrick and he was known on death row as “Freddie P.”
• Reporting described that three upper front teeth were capped in gold with the initials P, E and E engraved in gothic letters.
• Another account from McWilliams described him writing and drawing while incarcerated, and included his statement: “I have been incarcerated for 2 years and 9 months (as of July 1999).”
• McWilliams described himself in that account as “a 25 year old black male,” with “5'9" tall and weigh 225 lbs,” and as “a death row inmate at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville, Texas, USA.”
• That account included: “Good Day Friends! Yes it is a good day to live...” and “PLEASE HELP ! Dearest friends, I implore your assistance at these dire times.”