When a brazen Texas prison escape let seven dangerous criminals on the loose, it had deadly consequences for a young father, killed on Christmas Eve.
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Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins was caught in a hail of gunfire as the escaped inmates were fleeing the robbery of a sporting goods store, where they stocked up on guns, sleeping bags and camping equipment to aid their time on the run in a harrowing case featured on the season three premiere of Oxygen’s Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.
For weeks, investigators launched a massive manhunt to find the Texas 7 before tracking them to a Colorado RV park.
After one of the escaped convicts died by suicide, authorities were able to take the others into custody, but the fight for justice was only just beginning.
“Catching them was only half the battle,” Siegler remarked. “The State still had to hold all of these defendants accountable for capital murder.”
Who Were the Texas 7?
Dubbed the Texas 7 in the media, the group included a dangerous mix of criminals:
Ringleader George Rivas was serving 17 life sentences after carrying out 4 aggravated robberies and 13 aggravated kidnappings.Larry Harper was described as a violent serial rapist, serving 50 years behind bars.Michael Rodriguez was serving a life sentence after being convicted of the capital murder of his wife.Joseph Garcia was serving 50 years in prison for murder after he fatally stabbed a man during an argument.Patrick Murphy—described by Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Toby Shook as “a very sadistic human being”—was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault and rape at knifepoint.Donald Newbury had three aggravated robbery convictions and was serving a 99-year sentence. He was considered a hijacker who liked guns, according to Shook. Randy Halprin was serving a 30-year sentence for injury to a child after brutally beating an infant.
“They were acting as a very close team of criminals, which you don’t find often,” Shook remarked. “That made them even more dangerous.”
How Did the Texas 7 Escape From Maximum Security Prison?
Six of the seven had work assignments in the maintenance department of the Connally Unit Prison in Kenedy, Texas, when the group pulled off the largest prison break in the state’s history on Dec. 13, 2000.
The inmates worked in the prison’s maintenance department under civilian TDCJ supervisors. But behind the scenes, the Texas 7 were preparing for their escape—crafting shivs out of scrap iron.
Now armed, the prisoners jumped the maintenance employees as they were returning from lunch, tied them up and put them into a closet.
“There were at least a dozen hostages taken,” explained John Moriarty, chief of special operations for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. “The inmates are putting on the clothing that they take from the employees, and then went out to the tower. They jumped the guard that was in that building, tied him up, and put him in the bathroom.”
The tower also served as the prison’s armory and the escaped convicts took a shotgun, AR-15 and around a dozen pistols from the prison stash before stealing a prison truck and making their way out of the prison.
“To have that many escape,” Moriarty remarked, “is a massive, massive security failure.”
While searching the prison, investigators discovered a note left behind by Murphy, describing the prison system as unjust.
“Today I fired the first shot in the new revolution,” it read. “You haven’t heard the last of us yet.”
What Happened to Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins?
Weeks later, approximately 300 miles away in Irving, Texas, nine-months pregnant mom-to-be Misty Simpson was preparing to celebrate Christmas Eve with her fiancé Michael, a department manager at Oshman’s sporting goods store.
But as she was waiting in the parking lot for Michael to close up, she noticed a strange man inside the closed retail store and the employees marching in a single file line with their hands on each other’s shoulders. Concerned, she went to a pay phone to call 911.
She explained, “I just knew that this was off.”
Though a few units were dispatched to investigate, Officer Aubrey Hawkins was the first to arrive, driving to the back of the store with his lights flashing.
After pulling into the loading dock, Hawkins made his final radio call at 6:30 p.m. saying that he’d arrived at the store.
Moments later, he was killed in a hail of bullets as the Texas 7 were fleeing the store with their stolen goods—including 44 guns, more than $70,000 in cash, camping equipment and winter clothes—in tow.
When Hawkins’ backup arrived a few minutes later, they discovered him lying dead on the ground.
“He had been shot in the car. There were bullet holes through the windshield, gunshots through the driver side door,” recalled Irving Police Sgt. Jeff Spivey, the lead investigator. “We think he’s drug out of the car and run over. What that kind of action demonstrates is just a lack of humanity.”
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The 15 hostages inside the store were safely recovered.
On the ground, authorities found a gun that was ultimately traced back to Connally Unit Prison, connecting the crime to the earlier prison break. The witnesses also provided descriptions of their kidnappers to sketch artists that matched the missing men, providing further evidence the crimes were connected.
Were the Texas 7 Ever Caught?
Authorities launched a massive manhunt to try to find the missing prisoners, sharing the story with media outlets and America’s Most Wanted.
In one broadcast, host John Walsh remarked, “We’re tracking down one of the most ruthless gangs of lawbreakers we’ve ever gone after.”
Then on Jan. 18, 2001, authorities got a tip that the group could be hiding out in the Coach Light RV park in Woodland Park, Colorado. A tipster had seen two of the men at a local bible study group.
Once the information was confirmed, federal and Texas agents headed to the area.
Knowing the Texas 7 had police scanners, listened to radio traffic, were heavily armed and had positioned their RV so they could see others coming, the team had to be strategic about how they planned to capture the convicts.
They devised a plan using their own RV to get into the park undetected. But before they could descend on the inmates, they learned that some of the men were planning to flee.
They captured the three men—Rivas, Rodriguez and Garcia—at a convenience store on their way out of town. After taking them into custody, they closed in on the RV.
Though Halprin—who had been shot during the earlier robbery—surrendered, Harper died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The final two men, Murphy and Newbury, were tracked to a hotel in Colorado Springs and gave themselves up after doing an interview with the local media demanding prison reform.
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“With all the suspects in custody, there was a collective sigh of relief,” Spivey said. “But there’s still a lot of hard work to do to convict them of capital murder in the murder of Officer Hawkins.”
Prosecutors Spent Years Prosecuting Texas 7
For three years, Shook prosecuted the surviving members of the Texas 7 in one capital murder trial after another.
Prosecutors tried the men under the Texas law of parties, arguing that the men were equally responsible for Hawkins death, regardless of whether they’d fired the fatal shots, because they had acted together.
At the center of each trial was Hawkins’ widow Lori Acosta who emotionally recounted the agony of losing her soul mate and her stepson’s father.
“I just had to describe the evening to the court and the jury,” she told Prosecuting Evil. “That was really hard.”
Ringleader Rivas was the first to go to trial and was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001. Over the next three years, the five other defendants followed suit.
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Where Are the Texas 7 Today?
Rodriguez, Rivas, Newbury and Garcia have all been executed.
Halprin’s conviction was overturned in 2024 due to the judge’s antisemitic bias and he is awaiting a new trial.
As of October 2026, Murphy remains on death row.
“As hard as it was, justice for the most part has been served,” Acosta said. “I would say to anyone who has a loved one who’s a first responder, is a police officer, hug them tight, because it can be gone, as in my case, in 15 minutes.”