Texas Escapee Report Blames Prison Staff

Jan. 11, 2001 -- A breakdown in the prison system allowed the convicts now known as the "Texas Seven" to subdue prison staff during a 2 1/2-hour ordeal before escaping in a stolen vehicle with weapons collected from overpowered guards, according to a state report issued today.

A massive manhunt is still under way for the offenders who broke out of the state's maximum security Connally Unit in Kenedy, Texas, southeast of San Antonio on Dec. 13. The seven are charged in the Christmas Eve killing of an Irving, Texas, police officer and remain at large.

The breakout is evidence of a failure in the correctional system and could have been prevented had prison staff not made a series of blunders, said a report presented today before the criminal justice board in Austin.

"The system has failed," said Gary Johnson, state director for the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "It is our responsibility to discover how and why this failure occurred and to take corrective action."

The report made several recommendations, including reviewingpolicies governing inmate movement; revising gate procedures tomore specifically address identification rules; and ensuring thatvehicles are inside the prison grounds only as long as necessary.

Connally warden Johnson Tim Keith is "a good warden," Johnson said, but acknowledged he may face disciplinary action. Although some are blaming staff shortages for helping the inmates breakout, Johnson said such problems played an indirect role, if any. Johnson also said the prison's "snitch system," where inmatesrat each other out, also failed to help prevent the intricately planned escape.

Alejandro Marroquin, a guard taken hostage during the escape, was not allowed to ask questions during today's news conference and threw his security badge at prison officials who were present.Prison leaders are "scapegoating" someemployees, Marroquin said.

Opportunities Lost

In today's report, Johnson described in detail how the inmates used homemade weapons and cunning to overpower 11 prison employees and three fellow inmates, taking them hostage. The convicts bound their victims with duct tape, plastic ties and pillowcases and held them in the maintenance department before completing their escape, the report says.

At least twice during the inmates' escape, the attempt might have been thwarted had prison staff taken action, the report suggests.

At one point, after some hostages had been taken but before others were subdued, a recreational supervisor walked into the area and asked the offenders why no supervisor was present. The inmates told him their supervisor was in a different area, and the employee left without telling anyone about the situation.

Later, after the hostages were corralled into the electrical room, several managed to break free and pull a fire alarm, but the prison officers who were responsible for responding to the alarm did not investigate after they called the area on a phone and received no response, the report said.

"In retrospect, the events fit together like a puzzle. We just didn't fit them together fast enough to keep the offenders from escaping," Johnson said today.

Letters Left Behind

Before their escape the inmates managed to steal civilian-type clothing, a pickup truck and a small arsenal of firearms, leaving behind a note saying "You haven't heard the last of us yet." Three convicts also left their own letters complaining of the "tyranny of the Texas prison system" and called for a revolution, The Dallas Morning News reported today.

The search for the men — George Rivas, Joseph Garcia, Michael Rodriguez, Randy Halprin, Patrick Murphy Jr., Larry Harper and Donald Newbury — escalated after they allegedly killed Irving, Texas, police officer Aubrey Hawkins during a robbery of an Oshman’s Super Sports Store USA on Christmas Eve. Hawkins was shot 11 times, mostly in the head, then runover.

A gun stolen during the prison break was later recovered at the store where Hawkins was killed, state prison officials said.

Since then, investigators have received thousands of tips, even from places as far away as Colorado, but none has proven fruitful. Although a $200,000 bounty is now offered for the fugitives' capture and conviction, the Irving City Council wants to increase that reward to $500,000 soon, according to the Fort WorthStar-Telegram.

Staffing Shortage to Blame?

The escape of the "Texas Seven" also has left some corrections officials and lawmakers pointing to a lack of prison funding and staffing as a possible culprit in the breakout.

Brian Olsen, deputy director of the American Federation of Texas State, County and Municipal Employees, said the unit from which the inmates escaped was 22 officers short on the day of the escape. He said state leaders who have failed to address chronic staffing shortages should share some of the blame.

State Rep. Judy Haley, who represents the district southeast ofSan Antonio where the prison is located is among lawmakers who want toincrease guard pay. "If we were where we need to be, something like that would nothave happened," she said.

Starting pay for a Texas prison guard is about $18,000, or 43rdin the country, Olsen said. Pay for veteran officers was boosted to slightly more than$28,000 last year, but still lags behind the national average ofabout $34,000, Olsen said.

The proposed state budget announced Wednesday includes $42million for prison guard pay raises but doesn't include new money for additional staff.

Anatomy of an Escape

Although Johnson said today only the seven inmates truly know the details of the escape, authorities believe the breakout went something like this:

On the day of the breakout, six of the inmates decided to skip lunch in the prison mess hall shortly after 11 a.m. and eat in the maintenance shop instead. Although the report says there was no evidence the inmates brought food into the area, officials say the offenders took chips, summer sausage and bread apparently belonging to a prison employee out of a cabinet in the maintenance department.

All but one of the guards left the inmates in the maintenance shop and went to lunch.

Meanwhile, outside in the prison yard, inmate Rodriguez, a convicted murderer, told guards he had been assigned to pick up the trash. But in reality, he was serving as a lookout.

Inside the maintenance shop, outside the view of the prison tower guards, one of the inmates hit a guard with a pipe. As other guards returned from lunch, they too were overpowered.

"They overpowered him, and the others came back from lunch, one or two at a time they overpowered them until finally they had overpowered the entire maintenance shop," said Glen Castlebury, spokesman for the Department of Criminal Justice.

Soon, 11 employees and guards and three inmates had been taken hostage in the electrical room. At 1 p.m., a prison official conducting a usual security check called the maintenance shop for a head count. An inmate answered the phone and, impersonating a guard, reported that all the prisoners were accounted for.

Then inmate Halprin, wearing a stolen maintenance uniform, drove a utility cart from the maintenance shop to the prison’s rear gate. A prison guard opened the gate, with no questions asked.

Other inmates, now dressed in stolen civilian clothing, walked up to the prison tower and told the guard they needed to come up and do some service work. That guard was thus overpowered, clearing the way for those inmates to escape.

The rest of the convicts drove a prison pickup truck from the maintenance shop to the guard tower and loaded the vehicle with weapons. The inmates — two killers, two armed robbers, a child abuser, a serial rapist and a burglar — were able to leave the prison in a truck they had loaded with provisions and 238 rounds of ammunition.

During the robbery in which Hawkins was killed, the fugitives stole more than 40 weapons, including numerous guns from the sports store, authorities say. The loot included at least one automatic rifle and 14 .357-caliber Magnum pistols, they say.

They have also commandeered and abandoned vehicles during their prison escape and alleged robberies, leading authorities to believe they are receiving outside help.

ABCNEWS.com’s Geraldine Sealey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.