Garcia guilty of Irving police officer's murder
Posted on 02/06/2003 1:19:29 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
Garcia guilty of Irving police officer's murder
02/06/2003
A Dallas County jury on Thursday found prison escapee Joseph Garcia guilty of capital murder in the Christmas Eve 2000 death of an Irving patrol officer.
Sentencing is scheduled for next week.
Lead prosecutor Toby Shook argued that Mr. Garcia, the fourth escapee to stand trial in the slaying of Officer Aubrey Hawkins, taunted and threatened people as he tied them up during a robbery.
WFAA-TV Joseph Garcia |
When other escapees used walkie-talkies to alert Mr. Garcia that the group "had company," he joined them at the loading docks behind Oshman's SuperSports USA, where Officer Hawkins was killed in a hail of gunfire as he drove up, Mr. Shook said.
"They were a team acting together," the prosecutor said. "The only reason to bring a loaded gun to a robbery is because you anticipate you may need to use it on somebody."
Defense attorney Brad Lollar argued that prosecutors never proved that Mr. Garcia had fired at Officer Hawkins. He said Mr. Garcia's role that night had been to tie up Oshman's employees, noting that he could have killed them if he had wanted to commit murder that night.
"Where was Joseph Garcia when the firing started?" Mr. Lollar asked. "We don't know. There is no evidence that puts Joseph Garcia in that back parking lot at the time Officer Hawkins was murdered."
The defense lawyer urged jurors to find Mr. Garcia guilty of the lesser charge of aggravated robbery.
Mr. Garcia, who was serving a 50-year prison sentence for murder, escaped Dec. 13, 2000, with six other men from the maximum-security Connally Unit in South Texas.
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Prosecutors say that 11 days later, Mr. Garcia and the other escapees robbed Oshman's at gunpoint and killed Officer Hawkins as he arrived to investigate a suspicious-person call. The convicts fled to Colorado, where they were captured after a nationwide manhunt.
The three escapees tried before him, including ringleader George Rivas, were each convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
Three more to go.
This is like batting practice. Like Tee-Ball.
He's supposed to be batting 1000 against these mopes.
Good job, still. I'm usually against the death penalty, favoring mandatory life without parole for most cases. But this case of seven escaping from Maximum Security and killing a police officer makes my position a little less tenable.
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