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| Leader of Texas Escapees Testifies |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 08/30/2001 |
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The leader of a Texas prison breakout that triggered a nationwide manhunt last winter took the stand Tuesday in a bid to avoid the death penalty and said the escape could have been bloody if his gang had not shown restraint. 'Quite honestly, if we wanted to be brutal, we had sledgehammers,' said George Rivas, who was convicted of murdering a police officer while on the run. 'We had axes. We had huge pieces of steel rebar and pipes. The reason every single one is alive is because we didn't want to hurt them.' Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Rivas for the slaying of Officer Aubrey Hawkins, who was shot 11 times during a holdup at a Dallas-area sporting goods store on Christmas Eve, nearly two weeks after Rivas and six other convicts broke out of a maximum-security prison without serious injury to any of their hostages. The escaped convicts were tracked down in Colorado the following month. At the time of the escape, Rivas was serving 18 life sentences, mostly for two robberies. Rivas, the first of the seven convicts to be tried for the murder, told jurors he hand-selected some of his fellow escapees. 'I watched these people every day. I could have picked the most violent men in prison ... if all I'd wanted to do is hurt people,' he said. Rivas said hostages were bound with plastic ties, not rope, so they could escape. He also used cardboard to pad the floor so stripped hostages would not get cold. Rivas said the gang stole 16 weapons from the prison but never intended to use them. 'Honestly, if what happened in Irving hadn't happened, we were going to sell them,' he said, referring to the holdup. 'It was all about money.' On cross-examination, prosecutor Toby Shook dismissed Rivas' attempts to gain leniency. 'Aubrey Hawkins was shown no mercy this last Christmas Eve, was he?' Shook asked. 'You could have given up.' 'And go back to prison? No,' Rivas responded. 'Were you trying to kill Aubrey Hawkins?' Shook asked. 'God, no. No,' Rivas said. Rivas cried softly as he described a bleak childhood in which his stepfather abused his mother and half siblings. While growing up, he lived with his father and maternal grandmother. |
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