By Mike Lee, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
DALLAS -- The last escapee from the Connally prison unit to be tried in the Christmas Eve 2000 slaying of an Irving police officer was found guilty of capital murder Thursday.
The jury of six women and six men will begin hearing testimony Monday to determine whether Patrick Murphy Jr. receives the death penalty or life in prison.
Murphy was the lookout for a group of escaped convicts who robbed an Oshman’s sporting goods store in Irving on Christmas Eve 2000. He was more than 100 yards away when Officer Aubrey Hawkins interrupted the robbery and was shot to death. But Texas law allows Murphy to receive the death penalty if jurors believe he should have anticipated violence.
Prosecutors said Murphy’s actions during the robbery proved his intent: He was waiting in front of the store in a Chevrolet Suburban with two loaded revolvers, a shotgun and an AR-15 assault rifle.
Murphy later told police he was monitoring a police-band scanner during the robbery and used a walkie-talkie to warn the other six convicts when Hawkins arrived. He also said he was prepared to “initiate a firefight” if a standoff occurred.
Prosecutor Bill Wirskye piled the guns and radios on the witness stand Thursday and asked the jury to “imagine that this witness chair is the front seat of that Suburban. That pile of equipment speaks more eloquently to his intent than I ever could,” he said.
“What he intended, what he anticipated, was to leave more bullet-riddled bodies of police officers out there on [Texas] 183,” Wirskye said. “That was his bloody, bloody intent.”
Defense attorney Juan Sanchez motioned to a poster of all seven escapees and said: “The saints and sinners don’t all go in the same net. The fact that they put them all on a board doesn’t mean they’re guilty of the same thing.”
Murphy’s statement proves he didn’t intend for anyone to die, Sanchez said. As Hawkins arrived at the store, Murphy radioed the other convicts: “Abort. Leave, leave.” He later said he almost left the gang when he learned Hawkins had been killed.
“If they had listened to Patrick Murphy, Aubrey Hawkins and those other six would have never met,” Sanchez said. " `Abort. Leave, leave.’ That’s the exact opposite of `Attack, attack.’ ”
Prosecutor Toby Shook compared Murphy to “our troops in Iraq ... the forward air controllers” who help pinpoint the targets for bombs.
Hawkins “was surrounded and they ambushed him, and the only reason they were able to do that is him,” Shook said, pointing to Murphy.
Murphy gave up peacefully after being cornered in Colorado Springs, Colo. Police found 10 handguns and two shotguns in his hotel room, all stolen from the Oshman’s.
The jury began deliberating at 10:10 a.m. Thursday and returned a guilty verdict about 11:20 p.m. Murphy showed no reaction when the verdict was read.
Irving Police Chief Lowell Cannaday said he was relieved to see the last of the convicts found guilty. Hawkins was the second Irving police officer to die in the line of duty and the first one murdered. Officer Glenn Homs was killed by a drunken driver in 1993 while working a traffic accident.
“With the penalty phase coming on, we still have a great deal of work to be done,” Cannaday said.
Defense attorneys reportedly plan to call George Rivas, the leader of the gang, during the punishment phase of Murphy’s trial. Testimony will begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday in 283rd District Court.