Prosecutor, Mark Hasse gunned down outside Kaufman,Texas courthouse on 1.31.13, shooter is on the loose/4.18.13 former Kaufman Cty Justice of the Peace Eric Williams & wife Kim Lene Williams arrested & charged with capitol murder

By Matt Smith, CNN
updated 5:25 PM EST, Thu January 31, 2013

(CNN) -- Mark Hasse "had an absolute passion for putting away bad guys, and he enjoyed nothing better," his boss said.

Now investigators are looking into whether that passion led to Hasse being gunned down outside his office in Kaufman, Texas, where he was an assistant district attorney. Hasse was killed in the parking lot of the Kaufman County courthouse Thursday morning, shot several times after "a very small, very short confrontation," Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said.

"It was apparent that he was not expecting to have anything happen," Aulbaugh said. "He was on his way to his office."

Investigators are looking into whether Hasse's killing was retribution for any of the prosecutions he led, Aulbaugh said, "but we can't say we're confident that that's where it came from."

District Attorney Mike McLelland called Hasse "a stellar prosecutor" who knew that threats were part of the job, and he vowed to put away the "scum" who killed his assistant.

"I hope that the people that did this are watching, because we're very confident that we're going to find you," McLelland said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "We're going to pull you out of whatever hole you're in, we're going to bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."

Hasse was one of 13 prosecuting attorneys in Kaufman County, each of whom handled between 380 and 390 cases, McLelland said.

"He was a lot of fun. He was the premier storyteller of the office. He had lots of stories to tell," including surviving the crash of a World War II aircraft that left him in a coma, "caved in half his skull" and cost him his sense of smell.

"It was five kinds of miracles he survived that," McLelland said.

There have been no arrests, and Aulbaugh and other officials who addressed reporters Thursday afternoon appealed to the public for help. The local CrimeStoppers group and a Kaufman businessman have put up a total of $20,000 in reward money for information leading to a conviction, Aulbaugh said.

The Texas Rangers, the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined the manhunt, and "we are in the process of running down many leads right now," he said.

Kaufman County sheriff's spokeswoman Pat Laney said investigators are looking for an older-model, four-door sedan, either brown or silver, but it wasn't clear whether there were one or two suspects Thursday afternoon, Laney said.

"We have officers going over all of this case," she said. "Nothing has been identified yet that could have prompted this assault."

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January 31, 2013 2:19 PM

Texas assistant DA killed near courthouse identified as Chief Prosecutor Mark Hasse, report says

By Casey Glynn Topics Daily Blotter
Jan. 31, 2013. / KTVT/KTXA via CBS DFW
(CBS/KTVT/AP) KAUFMAN COUNTY - Officials have confirmed the identity of a Texas assistant district attorney shot and killed Thursday near the courthouse where he worked as Chief Prosecutor Mark Hasse, CBS DFW reports.

The shooting occurred just before 9 a.m. Thursday outside a building across from the main Kaufman County courthouse.

Authorities say two suspects in the shooting are now being sought.

At a Thursday. press conference, officials said Hasse was walking from the parking lot to his office when he was assaulted by an unknown person and "shot multiple times," according to CBS DFW. Hasse was then taken to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Local law enforcement officials decried the shooting as an attack on the criminal justice system.

"We understand that we may come into contact with violent people but this is the next level," Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said at the press conference conference.

Officials didn't immediately indicate any motive for the shooting.

Mark Hasse graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1981 and had been licensed to practice law since 1982, CBS DFW reports. The 57-year-old had been a Kaufman County District Attorney since July of 2010.

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Kaufman County, Texas, assistant district attorney Mark Hasse was ambushed by at least one gunman as he walked from his car to the county courtroom at 8:50 a.m. today
Victim was assaulted and shot multiple times before dying of his injuries in hospital
Hasse was heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood and investigators are working to determine if the two cases are linked
Shooting happen on the same day as two gang members pleaded guilty to racketeering charges
By HELEN POW
PUBLISHED: 13:46 EST, 31 January 2013 | UPDATED: 18:27 EST, 31 January 2013

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Victim: Officials have confirmed reports that the victim was Kaufman County assistant district attorney Mark Hasse, pictured

A Texas prosecutor who was heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood was shot dead on Thursday morning as he walked from his car to his county courtroom office.

Officials identified the victim as Kaufman County assistant district attorney Mark Hasse. The 57-year-old was assaulted and shot multiple times by at least one gunman, police said.

The apparent assassination took place at around 8:50 a.m. in a parking lot near the courthouse where Hasse worked as a felony prosecutor who headed murder and drug cases.

Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said he had never seen such a case in his four decade career.

'I've been doing this 43 years and I have never experienced anything like this before,' he told reporters at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

Hasse was rushed to hospital where he died of his injuries. He was unmarried and had no children.

Witnesses told police they saw two suspects flee the scene in an older, silver Ford Taurus. However, the number of suspects had not been verified.

Kaufman Chief of Police Chris Aulbaugh said the shooting appeared to be targeted at Hasse for a number of reasons. 'The fact it was not an ongoing rampage, it was one individual being shot and then (the gunmen) leaving the scene,' he said. 'It was a very small, very short confrontation.'

The suspects were of unknown race but were reportedly wearing all black, with one or both of them wearing a tactical-type vest. Some reports claim they were wearing masks.

A widespread manhunt is underway for the culprits with the help of police and sheriff's departments from across the county. 'Every police department in the county is involved,' county spokesman Pat Laney said.

No arrests have been made as yet. The Dallas County District Attorney's Office told the Dallas News that a suspect had been arrested in the case but the Kaufman County police later said DA Craig Watkins had been mistaken.

The initial $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the gunmen has been doubled to $20,000 after a local business offered to match the cash offered by Kaufman County Crimestoppers.

Investigators are searching through Hasse's case files, trying to identify any potential enemies he may have had, including any members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang.

The Dallas News reported that Hasse had been heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Shortly after the prosecutor was shot and killed, the Department of Justice put out a statement crediting the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office with helping in the investigation of two known members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang.

The gang members pleaded guilty today to racketeering charges, after Hasse's shooting.

The release states that Ben Christian Dillon, aka 'Tuff', of Houston, and James Marshall Meldrum, aka 'Dirty' both 'agreed to commit multiple acts of murder, robbery, arson, kidnapping and narcotics tracking' for the Aryan Brotherhood.

Tragic: Mark Hasse was unmarried and had no children but gave everything to his job

Kaufman County DA Mike McLelland said in an afternoon news conference that the county had suffered a 'devastating loss' today. However, he said Hasse had been fully aware of the dangers of his job and 'accepted them readily'.

'When you deal with bad people on a regular basis, you know there's the potential for these bad people to do something bad to you because they have done bad things to other people,' he told reporters.

Though he said Hasse didn't have any active cases dealing with the Aryan Brotherhood.

McLelland said his team of 13 prosecutors were mourning the shock death of their colleague. '(We're) a family not just an office,' he said. 'And trust me the entire office took this very, very badly. 'Mark was an absolutely stellar prosecutor and good friend.'

The DA appealed to anyone who had any information to come forward. 'Anything you folks can do to help us get our hands on this scum would be appreciated,' he said.

Sheriff Byrnes said the courthouse had surveillance cameras but they were directed at the buildings not the parking lot so didn't capture the shooting or the suspects as they made their getaway.

He said his office was beefing up security for Hasse's colleagues. 'We will have a uniformed officer in the parking lot for the foreseeable future ,' he said.

McLelland added that the walk to the courthouse would be 'humbling... unhappy' now his friend was gone.

But he insisted: 'We'll still show up and do the walk and send bad guys out of Kaufman County.'

Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood told the Dallas News earlier today that he did not know what cases the assistant district attorney had been working on before his death but said he was not aware of any heightened security.

'It's a horrible situation,' Wood told the Dallas News. 'None of us would have ever expected anything like this to ever happen in our county.' The county courthouse went into lockdown and was later closed after the shooting.
Tonya Radcliffe, a board member on the Kaufman County Appraisal District whose office is adjacent to the scene of the shooting, told NBC that a staff member heard the gunshots and called police. Radcliffe said she and her staff of about 25 were in the building and under lockdown along with seven Kaufman Independent School District campuses. Lawyer James Lee Bright, who arrived at the Kaufman courthouse just as officers flooded the scene, told the Dallas News that the veteran prosecutor had worked on numerous cases over his career that could be connected.

'When you hear a DA at 8:40 in the morning is gunned down by two people, I think there's a reasonable presumption that it's not random,' he said.

Defense lawyer Eric Smenner told the Dallas News that he immediately feared Hasse had been targeted. 'I felt it very certainly had to be work-related,' he said. Smenner added that Hasse parked in the same area of the courtroom parking lot each day. 'So if somebody was out to get him all they'd have to do is watch him a little bit,' he told the Dallas News.

According to CBS, Mark Hasse graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1981 and had been licensed to practice law since 1982.

The 57-year-old had been a Kaufman County District Attorney since July of 2010. He was chief of the Dallas County district attorney’s organized-crime section from 1985 until 1988.

Steinke said: 'Mark was really a great guy, he was the consummate prosecutor, he was hard-working, loved his job, and juries loved him for some reason. He wasn't very large in stature, but juries loved him and he exuded confidence.'

Hasse had recently bought a house in Kaufman County and was in the process of renovating it, McLelland said.
'It's a scary deal,' Dallas attorney Ted Steinke told WFAA.com regarding the role of a prosecutor. 'Every prosecutor every once in a while gets a death threat, and we take them seriously, but this is the first time in 20 years that I can remember here in North Texas a prosecutor actually being assaulted.'

Anyone with information can call Kaufman police at 972-932-3094 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at 1-877-847-7522.

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How awful! The link to him being heavily involved with investigating the Aryan Brotherhood is interesting.

Yes, it sure is. I inadvertently saw this on CNN while looking for the latest info on the Atlanta middle school shooting.

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By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
February 1, 2013, 7:56 a.m.

Houston—
As investigators continued to search Friday for suspects in the fatal shooting Thursday of a Dallas-area prosecutor, Dallas County’s district attorney offered to match a $30,000 reward for information leading to those responsible.

Officials were still trying to determine a motive for the bold shooting outside the county courthouse in Kaufman, about 33 miles southeast of Dallas.

Witnesses told investigators that suspects confronted Assistant Dist. Atty. Mark Hasse, 57, after he left his car in an employee parking lot outside the courthouse about 9 a.m., shooting him five times, according to Kaufman County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Pat Laney. Some witnesses reported the suspects were dressed in black, wore masks and a tactical vest, but investigators were still verifying that Friday.

Hasse was a certified peace officer, known to carry a weapon and sometimes wear a gun belt, Laney told The Times. She said investigators had not yet told her Friday whether Hasse was armed at the time of the attack.
Kaufman County CrimeStoppers issued a $30,000 reward Thursday, asking those with information to call (817) 847-7522 (that reward has since grown to at least $32,000, Laney said).

Dallas Dist. Atty. Craig Watkins said he would match the reward Friday morning during an appearance on WFAA-TV. Debbie Denmon, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, confirmed the announcement to The Times.

She noted that Hasse had worked at the Dallas office from 1982 to 1988, part of the time as chief of the organized specialized crime division.

“He was known as a pit bull who wasn’t afraid to take on any case,” she said. “He was just a really good prosecutor, fearless.”

She said the shooting was a reminder to Dallas’s 250 prosecutors of the potential threats they face daily.

“They know that their jobs are dangerous and that could have been one of them,” Denmon said. “Prosecutors go to their cars every day with people who are also going to court, getting on the same elevators with their family members. It’s a dangerous job.”

Of the suspects, she said, “we just want them brought to justice,” and with the added reward money, “hopefully, that will get people talking.”

No suspects had been arrested early Friday, Laney said.

The shooting came the same day that the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang had pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges and credited Kaufman County prosecutors for assisting with the case.

Laney said investigators were looking into that and other cases Hasse handled for clues into who might have wanted to hurt him.

She said the sheriff planned a briefing Friday morning.

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(CNN) -- The Texas prosecutor shot to death in broad daylight outside a courthouse had feared for his life and carried a gun to work, according to a Dallas attorney describing herself as his friend.
Colleen A. Dunbar told CNN that she spoke with Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse on January 24, and he told her he began carrying a gun in and out of the county courthouse on a daily basis.
Hasse was gunned down in the parking lot while going to work Thursday. Investigators on Friday were reviewing his caseload for possible clues about what led to his killing.
Dunbar described Hasse, whom she had known for 31 years, as a lifelong gun owner and firearms lover.
"He told me he would use a different exit every day because he was fearful for his life," she told CNN.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was one of 13 prosecuting attorneys in Kaufman County.
She said that Hasse offered no specifics on why he felt threatened, but only that he did. Dunbar said she had shared her conversation with Hasse with law enforcement, and that she was "shocked" by the killing.
When told of Dunbar's statements, Chief Deputy Rodney Evans of the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department was unaware of the information.
"But," Evans told CNN, "we've got 50 people here taking phone calls so somebody may know something I don't."
There were no significant advances in the case, Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said Friday, but that doesn't mean investigators weren't busy.
"We've fielded numerous tips coming in from the public. We are following up on every one of them," he said.
Police say they believe one or two people committed the crime, but there are few descriptive details because they hid their faces. Police are looking for a gray or silver older model sedan in relation to the case, Aulbaugh said.
Hasse was shot several times after "a very small, very short confrontation," police said.
Investigators are looking into whether Hasse's killing was retribution for any of the prosecutions he led. Hasse was one of 13 prosecuting attorneys in Kaufman County, each of whom handled between 380 and 390 cases.
Authorities hope that an ever-growing reward for information will reveal more leads.
Donors in the area have raised $64,500 to be used as reward money, and the police chief has asked for more donations.
The Texas Rangers, the FBI and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have joined the manhunt.
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This is just horrible. I wish he had spoken to more people that he was in fear for his life. He knew something. Am wondering about those Aryian people?? Hell, I can't even spell is correctly and that's just fine w/me.

This poor man. I hope they find who did this and I think they will. They don't play in Texas..especially if it's someone w/his reputation in the community.

Yes, I sure hope he told at least one person who he was in fear of! Those A Brothers are no one to mess with thou' but I'm basically chicken. Such a sad story and I sure hope they hunt those POS's down!

By LEE FERRAN (@leeferran) , MARK SCHONE and CHRISTINA NG (@ChristinaNg27)
Feb. 2, 2013

State and federal authorities have upped the reward for information leading to the killers of Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse to $70,000, but today said they do not have a motive or suspects in Thursday's shooting outside the Kaufman County Courthouse.

Authorities confirmed they are combing through past cases handled by the assistant district attorney for a possible motive, but said they knew of no current cases that Hasse had been handling that involved the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, one of the nation's most violent prison gangs.

Hasse was shot Thursday just before 9 a.m. by one or two unknown assailants as he walked from his car to the courthouse in the small town of Kaufman southeast of Dallas.

The assailants, who may have been masked and dressed in black, fled the scene in a silver four-door sedan. The murder came the same morning that two members of the ABT pleaded guilty to racketeering in a Texas federal court.

On Thursday morning, the Dallas Morning News reported that "authorities with knowledge of the assistant DA's caseload [said] he had been heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood."

The Kaufman County DA's office, where Hasse and a dozen other ADAs worked, was listed as one of 22 agencies on the task force that handled the racketeering case.

In a press conference Friday, Kaufman County Police Chief Chris Albaugh said that it "seems to be a coincidence" that the two events happened on the same morning and called a link between the guilty pleas and the shooting "speculation," but did not rule out the possibility that the shooting was related to one of Hasse's cases.

"We're not ruling out any involvement until we know," Albaugh said. "And we have no specific information that the Aryan Brotherhood is a factor here.

"We are reviewing Mr. Hasse's cases and following up on any leads within those cases that would give us a person of interest," he said.

Hasse, 57, had been a longtime felony prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, according to the ABC's Dallas/Fort Worth affiliate WFAA-TV. He headed the organized crime unit in Dallas in the 1980s. He started work in Kaufman County three years ago.

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

Ben Dillon, AKA Tuff, and James Meldrum, AKA Dirty, both 40 and members of the ABT, pleaded guilty to racketeering Thursday in Houston and could be sentenced to life in prison. Dillon admitted trafficking methamphetamine and committing arson, while Meldrum admitted beating another gang member and selling meth.

Meldrum and Dillon were among nearly three dozen defendants charged late last year with racketeering for the ABT. The federal indictment includes charges of racketeering, meth dealing, kidnapping and murder against defendants with nicknames like "Scuba Steve," "Duke," "Baby Huey," and "Bam Bam."

Another member of the ABT, Terry Sillers, is reportedly under the protection of federal agents after agreeing to cooperate with authorities and testify against the 34 defendants in the case.

The Anti-Defamation League calls the ABT "the most violent extremist group in the United States today" and one of the largest white supremacist prison gangs in the country. Since 2000, according to the ADL, the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and its associates have committed at least 29 murders in Texas and neighboring states, killing "more Americans than any other domestic extremist group."

Most of the murders seem to be the result of criminal or internal disputes rather than hate crimes, however. Some of the killings involved torture, burning and decapitation.

The ABT is allegedly involved in methamphetamine trafficking and identity theft, among other crimes. It is separate from the better-known national group, the Aryan Brotherhood.

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Investigators search for clues in surveillance video in Kaufman ADA Mark Hasse case

05 February 2013 Local News Written By Mathew Richards

Investigators are still searching for any credible leads in the murder of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, according to a release from the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office issued on Tuesday, February 5th.

“Investigators have also been thorough in their collection and review of area surveillance video and continue to evaluate additional locations for video retrieval.” states the release. Just 5 days after the murder, investigators have combed through hundreds of hours of surveillance video and case files that Hasse previously worked on.

Authorities are still unsure of whether or not there were one or two assailants that attacked Hasse early Friday morning, January 31. Hasse was attacked and gunned down in broad daylight while he was making the short walk to the courthouse from the county employee parking lot. The assailants are described to have been wearing black clothing, possibly sweatshirts or masks to conceal their faces. The release from the Sheriff's Office states that, “Investigators continue to look for an older model, Taurus-style sedan; silver or possibly brown in color.”

According to the Kaufman County Crime Stoppers the reward is nearly $80,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment of the suspect(s). Tips can be sent to the Kaufman County Crime Stoppers program by phone at 1-877-847-7522 and online at kaufmancountycrimestoppers.org.

If you would like to donate to the reward amount, you can stop by any American National Bank Branch and make a donation to the Mark Hasse Reward Fund. You can also send donations to the Kaufman County Crime Stoppers at PO Box 849, Kaufman, TX 75142.

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Slain Kaufman County prosecutor hailed at memorial service as champion of justice

TERRELL — One by one, they took the podium: the prosecutor, the lieutenant in the sheriff’s office and the county’s district attorney.

One by one, they told stories about Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse, who was fatally shot by up to two masked gunmen in black while walking to the courthouse on Jan. 31.

One by one, the public faces of strength in the community found themselves near tears and paused to collect themselves.

“He gave his life for what he believed in,” said prosecutor Marcus Busch, who practiced law with Hasse. “This world is a better place because of Mark, and so are we.”

About 1,000 people attended a memorial service Saturday for the slain Kaufman County assistant district attorney and former Dallas County prosecutor, held at the Terrell Independent School District Performing Arts Center, the largest venue in Kaufman County.

Co-workers remembered Hasse, 57, as a bulldog in the courtroom who ruthlessly pursued justice for crime victims. He wasn’t married and had no children. He dedicated his life to his work.

“Make no mistake about it, Mark was fearless,” Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McClelland said. “He wasn’t very big, but he would never cut and run from anything.”
At 5-8 and about 130 pounds, Hasse was known for his hatred of healthy food. He ate two TV dinners at night and recently ordered nine boxes of Girl Scout cookies from a co-worker’s daughter — four boxes of Tagalongs and five boxes of Samoas. He never gained a pound.
“Those Girl Scout cookies would have taken him up to about lunch,” McClelland said.

For as vicious as he could be in the courtroom, he bounded around the courthouse and his laughter could often be heard from down the hall. Hasse rescued stray dogs throughout his life and loved kids, making time to visit child victims in the hospital. He was never too busy to help a friend or co-worker.

Phillip Williams, one of the newer prosecutors in Kaufman County, said he often interrupted Hasse in his office to ask for advice. Hasse would hold up each of his index fingers and give instructions: “All right, here’s what you do.” When Williams thanked him, Hasse would say “You bet, dude,” before bolting out the door in his typical fast-paced walk, moving on to his next appointment.

“That simple act of kindness, giving me advice — it struck me as how extremely selfless,” Williams said, pausing as thunder roared and the lights in the auditorium flickered. “It struck me as to how selfless and generous an act it was for a driven, confident, intense, high-level prosecutor like Mark Hasse to always stop and do for me, before doing for himself.”

Rain pounded overhead during the service, sometimes overpowering the voices of those remembering Hasse. But when Hasse’s niece, Megan Hasse, came on stage to sing “Amazing Grace,” the storm receded.

Her voice rose in a smooth crescendo:
Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
T’was Grace that brought me safe thus far,
and Grace will lead me home.

Hasse knew the dangers of his job and embraced them because he felt called to help victims, his friends and co-workers said. And although he worked for justice, his killers remain at large.

But McClelland promised that their time would come.
“He knows and I know, there will be a reckoning,” McClelland said.

At the end of the service, a man walked out on to a balcony near the stage and sounded taps. Police officers from around the area placed their hands on their chest. McClelland saluted.

The sad song echoed, creating the illusion of a second instrument. But there wasn’t one; only silence.

Hasse is survived by his mother, brother, sister-in-law, two step-brothers and several nieces and nephews.

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I wonder if they w/ever catch whoever did this to him.Very sad!

Feb 12, 2013

The murder of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in Kaufman County, brings to mind the assassination of U.S. District Judge John Wood in May 1979. It would be the only killing of a federal judge in the 20th century.



Hasse was shot dead two weeks ago on the street near his courthouse office in Kaufman. On May 24, 1979, a sniper killed Wood with one shot as he left his San Antonio town home to go to work at the federal courthouse.

Within minutes, federal, state and local police launched one of the most extensive manhunts in Texas history.The cold-blooded assassination of a prosecutor or judge is rare in the United States. Such crimes are supposed to happen in third-world banana republics, not in America.

The investigation into Wood’s murder lasted three years and cost an estimated $5 million to $10 million — and that’s in early 1980s dollars.

Wood was a tough judge who reserved particularly long sentences for drug traffickers. He and federal prosecutors, particularly Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kerr, had been involved in a long-running feud with the notorious Chagra family of El Paso. The three Chagra brothers, all attorneys, were involved in drugs, gambling and an array of other rackets.

Wood was murdered on the very day that Jamiel “Jimmy” Chagra was to appear before him in a preliminary hearing on drug-related charges. Some six months earlier, two gunmen had tried to kill Kerr as he drove to work on a busy San Antonio street. They pumped an estimated thirty bullets into his car, but Kerr crawled onto the floorboard and survived the attack unharmed. No one was ever arrested in that case, but the Chagras were prime suspects.

nvestigators eventually concluded that Jimmy Chagra had hired Charles V. Harrelson to kill Wood. Harrelson was a hitman, gambler, drug addict and father of actor Woody Harrelson. He died prison in 2007.



The silence surrounding the Hasse case is troubling. It suggests that investigators have few good leads to pursue. Hasse, who was 57, had a long history of prosecuting bad guys going back to his days as an assistant district attorney in Dallas in the 1980s.

Like Judge Wood and Kerr, Hasse took crime seriously. It was personal, not just business.

One has to presume that local, state and federal investigators are furiously turning over rocks to find Hasse’s killer or killers. They’re combing through his caseload, going back years into his career. They’re rousting criminals and prison inmates who might know something, or who might have heard something about the murder. And they’ll dangle offers of leniency to those who provide information that actually leads somewhere.

The investigation that finally resulted in prison sentences for Chagra and Harrelson lasted for three years. Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long to crack the Mark Hasse case. It’s scary to think about killers on the loose and what they may do next.

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2/25/2013

The reward offered in the murder case of the Kaufman County assistant district attorney gunned down last month has grown to $100,000.

Pat Laney, Kaufman County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman, confirmed that many people donated to the Mark Hasse reward fund to make it a six figure amount.

Witnesses said the suspects were dressed in black. A silver four-door sedan has been linked to them. Witnesses saw a fleeing dark brown or silver sedan, perhaps a Ford Taurus. Authorities soon issued a bulletin for two black-clad men who may have been wearing tactical vests.

Anyone with information can call Kaufman County Crime Stoppers at 1-877-847-7522. Donations to the Crime Stoppers reward fund can also be made payable to the Mark Hasse Fund at any area American National Bank of Texas location.

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March 12, 2013 1:50 PM
Reporting L.P. Phillips

KAUFMAN (CBSDFW.COM) - Investigators in Kaufman County are still looking for the gunman who shot and killed Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse. Several weeks ago, billboards went up across North Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, asking for help in the case. Those billboards have brought in some new clues and a bigger reward.

Hasse was assassinated on January 31 in broad daylight, near the Kaufman County Courthouse in downtown Kaufman. The attacker approached the Assistant District Attorney wearing a mask, opened fire, and then fled the scene in a nondescript car. The masked gunman got away before anybody could come up with a solid description of the person’s appearance.

District Attorney Mike McLellan said that, with help from the new billboard campaign, more tips are continuing to be received. “There’s going to be people that remember things that they have seen that might match something that they’ve heard earlier, people with hunches about something that they had seen and they just, for some reason or another, just pops back in their mind,” McLellan said. “The insignificant piece of information to you is gold to an investigator, so please don’t discount whatever information you might have.”

McLellan did not elaborate on the details of the investigation, but said that it is still very much an active case. “It is progressing and proceeding, and there’s quite a few people involved in it,” McLellan said, “and they’re still out there tracking down leads and going through the motions.”

Meanwhile, the reward pot has grown even larger — to a total of $130,000. “There is a $100,000 reward from Crime Stoppers,” said McLellan, “but there’s also a private individual who has promised another $30,000 to the person who collects that reward.”

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I sure hope they are able to find his killer. It sounds like he/they are not stupid. It would be horrible for this man's murder to go unsolved.

FIRST TEXAS PROSECUTOR MURDERED SINCE 1991
MARCH 17, 2013
BY: EDWARD LANE

Investigators looking into the assassination of Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse have received new clues, according to law enforcement authorities in Kaufman County. Hasse was murdered on January 31 in broad daylight as he got out of his car about 8:30 a.m. near the courthouse in Kaufman, Texas.

Two different versions have evolved so far. One is that a single gunman wearing a mask gunned down the assistant district attorney as Hasse was on his way to work that fateful day.

A second version is that two gunmen wearing masks shot down the prosecutor and fled in a car quickly.

Speculation has been that under either theory, it was a hit job based on the time, location and quick disappearance of the assassin or assassins.

Billboards went up across Louisiana, North Texas, and Oklahoma requesting help in the case. Those billboards have brought in clues and a bigger reward.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLellan said that information which may appear insignificant to a normal citizen might be very valuable to investigators who trying to put all the pieces of a bigger puzzle together. There is no way to predict which piece of evidence might finally connect all the dots in a murder investigation.

The reward has climbed to $130,000 to anyone providing information which leads to the indictment of a suspect or suspects in this high profile case.

News of Hasse's murder hit the law enforcement community like a Texas tornado. Chris Marshall was the last prosecutor murdered in the line of duty and that was back in 1991 when George Lott shot Marshall, several judges and another lawyer inside a Tarrant County Courthouse.

Lott was angry over a domestic relations case involving his wife which had no connection to Chris Marshall or the others he shot that sad day in Fort Worth. He was executed in record time after he waived all his appeals after receiving the death penalty.

Whoever committed this crime will certainly be eligible for lethal injection in the Texas death house in Huntsville, Texas. It is capital murder to kill a prosecutor.

This crime has received national publicity as the New York Times has even weighed in on it.

Anyone who has information is encouraged to contact the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office as soon as possible.

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March 22, 2013 11:56 AM
Reporting L.P. Phillips

KAUFMAN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – FBI agents in Colorado are comparing notes with agents in North Texas to see if there’s a link between the man who was killed in Wise County and the murder of Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse.

Evan Ebel is a suspect in Tuesday’s murder of Colorado Prison Chief Tom Clements. He was driving through North Texas when he got into a high-speed chase and gunfight with Wise County Sheriff’s deputies Thursday and was killed.

Hasse, an assistant district attorney with the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office, was shot and killed in a parking lot across the street from the county courthouse on Jan. 31.

Both slayings involved high-profile officials, and both cases have ties to organized crime.

Ebel has been identified as a member of a white supremacist gang. And in November 2012, Hasse’s office was credited with helping indict 34 alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a white supremacist prison gang and organized crime syndicate.


Lieutenant Justin Lewis of the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office cautions for now that there is no solid evidence to link the two high-profile cases.

“What we can say right now is that the Dallas office of the FBI and the Denver office of the FBI are comparing notes in the two cases.”

“It’s pretty much routine. Anytime there’s a case like that, they compare notes,” Lewis added.

The Kaufman County Sheriffs Office released the following statement regarding a possible link.

The Dallas and Denver offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are comparing the homicides of Mark Hasse and Tom Clements to determine if there is any evidence linking the two crimes. This is part of routine investigative work when two crimes occur under somewhat similar circumstances. If any link is found, or a possible link is disproven, that information will be released at the appropriate time.

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By Jim Spellman, Ed Lavandera and Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
updated 12:00 PM EDT, Sat March 23, 2013

Evan Ebel, a former Colorado prison inmate and a former member of a white supremacist group, is suspected of killing Colorado prison chief Tom Clements. Ebel was killed March 21, 2013, in north Texas after a battle with authorities that left a sheriff's deputy wounded.

Colorado Springs (CNN) -- Days after he led police in a wild car chase that ended in a hail of gunfire, authorities are investigating the driver's links to two Colorado killings. And whether he has ties to a third shooting, in Texas, earlier this year.
Suspect Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, was fatally shot in the head Thursday after he opened fire on the deputies chasing him in in Montague County, Texas.
Investigators have found evidence linking him to the slaying of a Colorado prison chief and a pizza delivery driver this week.
And the FBI is looking for possible evidence linking the January slaying of Kaufman County prosecutor Mark Hasse to Tuesday's killing of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements at a Denver suburb.
A bullet hole is visible on the door frame of a patrol car involved in a shootout in Texas.

"This is part of routine investigative work when two crimes occur under somewhat similar circumstances," the Kaufman County Sheriffs Office said in a statement Friday. " If any link is found, or a possible link is disproven, that information will be released at the appropriate time."
In an affidavit, Texas authorities detailed what they believe links him to the prison chief's killing.
Black Cadillac
Of key focus in the affidavit is a 1991 black Cadillac authorities say the suspect was driving in a wild, high-speed chase Thursday. He opened fire on sheriff's deputies before slamming into an 18-wheeler, climbing out of the wreckage and opening fire again.
Witnesses reported a similar vehicle -- a black, boxy car with Colorado license plates -- near the prison chief's house the day he was killed.
Among the links in the cases, according to the affidavit, are shell casings from a 9mm handgun found at Clements house. They are the same brand and caliber used in the shooting of James Boyd, a Wise County, Texas, sheriff's deputy who tried to pull over the suspect.
Pizza box carrier
Boyd, who had on a bullet-proof vest, managed to call for help and tell law enforcement which way Ebel was driving. The deputy remains hospitalized at a Dallas-Fort Worth area hospital.
During the investigation into the shooting, authorities found a Domino's Pizza box carrier and a uniform jacket in the trunk of the Cadillac, prompting Denver authorities to go to Texas to examine the car.
Video: Pizza deliveryman remembered
'Strong connection'
They are investigating the killing of Nathan Collin Leon, 27, a Domino's Pizza deliveryman in Denver. Leon disappeared from work Sunday and was found dead in the Denver suburb of Golden.
Denver investigators said there is a "strong connection" between Leon and Clements killings, but have said little about a possible motive.
Did Ebel kill a pizza deliveryman to get a hold of his uniform as part of an effort to disguise himself? Did he target Clements because of the prison chief's crackdown on white supremacist gangs in prison? Was he part of a wider conspiracy to kill Clements? Or was it something else?
Investigators looking into Clements' killing have told reporters they are considering numerous angles.
One is that Ebel, a former member of the 211s -- a white-supremacist prison gang -- might have conspired with other inmates to kill Clements, the Colorado, sheriff's department said.
Clements earned widespread recognition for prison reforms and crackdown on prison gangs, including the 211s.
Citing media coverage of the shooting and its possible connection with the the 211s, authorities locked down Colorado's prisons on Friday.
History of violence
Ebel lengthy prison record dates to his teen years, including a 2003 charge for felony armed robbery after he brandished a gun and threatened to kill a man unless he handed over his wallet, court documents show. He was 18 at the time.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison, serving just over a year.
Just months after his release, he was arrested again. This time for felony menacing, robbery and assault. He pleaded guilty to those charges in 2005 and was sentenced to another three years in prison.
In 2006, while in prison, Ebel was charged with assaulting a detention officer, records show. He pleaded guilty and received an additional four years on his sentence.
Ebel served his entire sentence and was given mandatory parole on January 28, 2013, according to the state Department of Corrections.

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A Texas county district attorney and his wife were found dead in their home Saturday night, two months after a county prosecutor was gunned down.
The Kaufman County Sheriff's Office is in the preliminary stages of investigating the slaying of Mike McLelland and his wife, according to Justin Lewis of the sheriff's office.
Lewis said he did not know if the deaths Saturday were connected to the killing of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, who was shot and killed on his way to work in January.
According to the DA's office website, McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, had two daughters and three sons. One son is a Dallas police officer.
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Mike McLelland, Kaufman County District Attorney, was found dead in his home.

This was just on our local news and they said they were shot. I'll post the link as soon as I can find it.

A federal prosecutor has reportedly left a case involving members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas citing "security concerns."

The Dallas Morning News reports that Houston-based assistant U.S. attorney Jay Hileman told defense lawyer Richard O. Ely II that he was withdrawing in an email.

Ely is representing one of the defendants in the case, which involves racketeering charges.

Houston defense attorney Katherine Scardino also received the email from Hileman, according to Talking Points Memo.

"He sent the email to every lawyer representing a defendant in the Aryan Brotherhood federal case, and he said -- very short email -- that he was withdrawing for security reasons," Scardino told TPM.

Angela Dodge, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Houston, declined to confirm to The Huffington Post whether or why Hileman left the case.

"The case currently pending in the Southern District of Texas has been and will continue to be worked by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division," Dodge said in an email.

The news comes days after Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were shot and killed in their home.

The Associated Press reports that authorities are investigating whether white supremacists could be behind a recent spate of deadly violence directed at prosecutors and a Colorado corrections official.

Texas law enforcement agencies have been put on high alert, the AP reports.

The killings also come months after 34 members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas were indicted, according to Democracy Now.
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April 14, 2013 at 3:38 PM by AHN
Windsor Genova – Fourth Estate Cooperative Contributor

Kaufman, TX, United States (4E) – A former justice of the peace linked to the murders of two Kaufman County prosecutors was arrested and detained Saturday on charges of making terroristic threat.

Eric Lyle Williams, 46, was not charged with the murders of District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife, Cynthia, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse. Authorities, however, traced anonymous letters threatening county officials to Williams’ Kaufman home. Law enforcers searched his home Friday.

McLelland and his wife were gunned down inside their home over Easter weekend and Hasse was also shot dead on Jan. 31. Investigators zeroed in on Williams, who was prosecuted by McLelland and Hasse last year for stealing county computers. Williams was convicted of theft and burglary, but the case is on appeal.

Williams is also facing another theft charge for allegedly misusing a law library fund and his bail was set at $3 million.

Before his death, McLelland told others he suspected Williams was behind Hasse’s death.

Williams’ attorney on Friday denied he was involved in the killings. Investigators have been coming and going to Williams’ house before his arrest, the last one on Thursday. Williams submitted to gun powder tests after the slaying but the results were negative. He also surrendered old cell phones to investigators for inspection.

Meanwhile, FBI agents and Texas Rangers raided a storage shed in Seagoville on Saturday and secured evidences on the multiple murder case. A four-door Crown Victoria car was pulled out from the Gibson Self Storage.

On Sunday, hundreds of people walked to the Kaufman County courthouse and held a prayer vigil for the slain prosecutors.

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(CNN) -- The wife of a former justice of the peace in Texas is being held on murder charges in connection with the killings of Kaufman County District Attorney Michael McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, county officials announced Wednesday.
Kim Lene Williams, 46, is also charged with murder in the death of prosecutor Mark Hasse.
She is in jail, with bail set at $10 million. The Kaufman County jail website lists her as being booked about 3 a.m. Wednesday.
The McLellands were killed in March, and Hasse was killed in January.
The arrest warrant said she confessed in detail to her involvement and her husband, Eric Williams', role in the scheme.
The warrant said she "intentionally and knowingly" caused the deaths and accused her husband of being the trigger man.
McLelland and Hasse prosecuted Eric Williams on a charges of felony burglary and theft by a public servant last year, according to the warrant. He was removed as a justice of the peace, an elected office, after he was convicted in March 2012, it said.
Kaufman County Sheriff's Sgt. Matt Woodall wrote in an affidavit filed with the warrant that he "learned from other officers of the county and county employees that Mr. Hasse and Mr. McLelland both believed that Eric Williams blamed them for his removal from office."
The prosecutors carried handguns for their protection after the Williams trial "because they believed Eric Williams to be a threat to their personal safety," Woodall wrote.
Eric Williams was arrested last week on a count of making a terroristic threat. A sheriff's affidavit accused him of using his home computer to threaten police investigating the McLellands' killings.
Eric Williams' attorney released a statement Friday saying he "has cooperated with law enforcement and vigorously denies any and all allegations. He wishes simply to get on with his life and hopes that the perpetrators are brought to justice."
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Kim Lene Williams, 46, is facing murder charges. She is in jail, with bail set at $10 million.

Former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams has been charged with capital murder.

On Wednesday, his wife, Kim Lene Williams told investigators her husband shot and killed a county prosecutor as well as the district attorney and his wife.

The Kaufman Sheriff's Office has scheduled a 1:30 p.m. press conference to provide new information on the investigation into the deaths of District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, as well as top prosecutor Mark Hasse.

Scheduled speakers include representatives from the Kaufman Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death in their home on March 30. Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down outside the county courthouse on Jan. 31.

According to an arrest affidavit, Kim Lene Williams confessed to her involvement in the shootings and provided police with details about the killings that were not released publicly. The affidavit also stated that Kim Williams "intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual ... by shooting him with a firearm" -- legal language police said outlines her involvement in the killings without going into specifics.

Lt. Justin Lewis, with the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office, said that Kim Williams told investigators her husband pulled the trigger.

During the April 17 news conference, Lewis did not describe the evidence against Kim Williams, only saying that she had been charged with capital murder and was being held on a $10 million bond at the Kaufman County Jail.

Lewis also did not say anything about her husband, Eric Williams, who was arrested over the weekend and charged with making terroristic threat.

As of Wednesday night, Williams had not been charged in the slayings of the McLellands or Hasse and remained jailed on a $3 million bond.

The arrest of Kim Williams, who has been described as frail from debilitating arthritis that is so severe it is impossible for her to work, was a shocking twist in the investigation into killings of the McLellands and Hasse.

"I don't think anyone could have written a novel that would play out like this," Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood said Wednesday after her arrest. He said county employees were relieved the case that had baffled authorities for weeks was moving forward but also were shocked by the developments.

Wood said he met her only once, briefly at a swearing-in ceremony for public officials. A local attorney, Steve Hulme, said he knew Eric Williams' wife had health issues and called her arrest "just shocking."

Richard Mohundro, a next-door neighbor, said Kim Williams used to visit him and talk on his front porch.

"I actually had many more conversations with Kim ... than I ever did with him," Mohundro said. "She is in bad health and hasn't been outside much in the last two years."

Winnie Murrell sold her home to the Williams family in 2001 but returned to the neighborhood frequently because her sister lived up the street.

"They were not real friendly people," Murrell said. "In fact I thought she was a recluse. I stayed up at my sister's house a lot and I never saw her outside or anything."

McLelland and Hasse prosecuted Eric Williams last year for the theft of three computer monitors from a county building. He was convicted, sentenced to probation and lost his law license and his elected position as justice of the peace -- a judge who handles mostly administrative duties.

Kim Williams testified at the sentencing phase of the trial, calling him "a loving man" and contradicting the image presented in trial testimony that indicated he made death threats against a former girlfriend and a local attorney.

She testified she suffers from several illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis and chronic fatigue syndrome. She said her husband was her sole caregiver as well as the caregiver for her two ailing parents.

"He wouldn't do anything to hurt anybody," she testified, according to a story from the Forney Post. "I'm standing by him 100 percent."
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Video at link

KAUFMAN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – Former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace Eric Williams has been formally charged with capital murder in the slayings of assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, District Attorney Mike McLelland, and his wife Cynthia.

Authorities with the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office announced the charges on Thursday, just one day after Williams wife, Kim Lene Williams, was arrested and charged on the same counts.

The bond has been set at $23 million for Eric Williams and $10 million for his wife Kim.

Eric Williams was initially arrested on Saturday for allegedly making terroristic threats against city officials. But the case took a dramatic turn on Wednesday when Kim Williams was arrested and questioned by officials. According to an arrest affidavit, Kim Williams admitted to her role in the killings and implicated her husband as the shooter.

Authorities served a search warrant last week at the homes of Eric Williams and his in-laws. The next day, authorities searched a Seagoville storage facility rented to Williams and discovered a number of incriminating items.

Sources tell CBS 11’s J.D. Miles that 41 guns, a machete, and a bow were among the items found inside. Authorities also seized a white Ford Crown Victoria, which matches the description of a vehicle spotted near the McLelland home on the night of the murders.

Eric Williams was questioned and tested for gunpowder in relation to the January murder of Hasse and again after the McLellands were killed in March.

Hasse and McLelland prosecuted and secured a conviction against Williams in 2012 after surveillance cameras captured him taking computer equipment from a county building.
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Must see video at link.

Am so HAPPY and RELIEVED they have found these two nutjobs that did this!

It must be a HUGE relief to the rest of the courthouse too!

Probably to the entire State..and now they are dealing w/this horrific explosion.

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Posted: Wednesday, July 24, 2013 10:32 am
By Loyd Cook

Prosecutors will go before a Kaufman County district court on Friday, July 26 and formally announce they will be seeking the death penalty for Eric and Kim Williams, accused of three murders earlier this year.
Kaufman County Sheriff David A. Byrnes gave that information to a crowd of Kaufman Lions Club members at the organization’s weekly meeting on Friday (July 19).

Judge Michael Snipes of the Criminal District Court No. 7 of Dallas County will be in Kaufman to sit on that pre-trial proceeding, according to his court coordinator.

Snipes was appointed as the presiding judge on the capital murder cases after 422nd Judicial District Judge B. Michael Chitty recused himself.

“We’re going to try to seat a jury in Kaufman County,” Byrnes said, heading off questions about whether or not a trial would be held here. “We think we can do that.”

“We think the people of Kaufman County deserve to hear this case.”

Byrnes was the club’s guest speaker at its luncheon and was asked there to talk to members about the events that began in late January.

“Jan. 31st, at 8:43 a.m., changed Kaufman forever,” Byrnes began. “Mark Hasse was assassinated on his way to work.”
Hasse, a Kaufman County assistant district attorney, was shot and killed at the scene, one block from the courthouse.
On March 30, the day before Easter Sunday, district attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were shot and killed in their home.
In subsequent weeks, former justice of the peace Eric Williams was jailed for sending a terroristic threat by email.
Days later, during an interview with law enforcement, his wife Kim Williams confessed that she had been the driver of the vehicle that had carried her and her husband to both murder scenes and said her husband was the shooter in both cases.
Both McLelland and Hasse were the prosecuting attorneys in the 2012 trial of Eric Williams that saw a jury hand down two guilty verdicts on state jail felony charges.
Chitty was the presiding judge on that case.
The result of that trial saw Eric Williams removed from office and have his license to practice law suspended by the State Bar of Texas.
On Friday, Byrnes walked Kaufman Lions through the timeline of events earlier this year.
Starting with Hasse, he noted that a myriad of local, state and federal agencies responded to form a taskforce that performed daily investigations related to the first murder.
“We really had very little evidence on that first case,” Byrnes said. “It was a public street, but we had eyewitnesses who couldn’t agree on a description (of the shooter), a kind of car, the car’s color, or what side of the car he got in on.”
The number of investigators quickly rose to 80, the sheriff said, and the task force developed information, but “we did not what it meant, but we had it.”
It would only be later, after the murder of the McLellands, that some earlier information began to connect.
And the connection came after a friend of Eric Williams, who served with him in the Texas State Guard, came forward. Byrnes said the friend told law enforcement that Williams asked him to rent a storage unit for him, because everything was still unsettled from his felony convictions.
The task force later obtained a search warrant for the storage unit and found a number of weapons belonging to Williams including kinds that were of the type used in the murders.
They also found a used Ford Crown Victoria that matched the description of a vehicle seen in the area of the McLelland murders around the time they occurred.
Byrnes said that many lines of inquiry were pursued during the investigation, including looking at the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Drug Cartel.
“But we never thought it was (Aryan Brotherhood),” he said. “And the Mexican Drug Cartel, it was out of character for them … when they do something, they want everyone to know about it.”
The two special prosecutors assigned to the case — Bill Wirsky and Toby Shook — have experience in prosecuting capital murder cases, the sheriff noted.
The duo prosecuted the “Texas 7” — the inmates that escaped from a Texas prison in December 2000 and were on the run until they were located a month later in Colorado, where one committed suicide rather that be captured.
Wirsky and Shook obtained the death penalty for each one of the six remaining fugitives for the murder of Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins during their month-long crime spree.
Byrnes noted that, in the aftermath of the murders, local law enforcement provided 24 hours-a-day security coverage for more than 20 county officials. That lasted for three days before state and federal agencies like the Texas Rangers, FBI and ATF began to help take the load off the men, and budgets, of local agencies.
And, throughout, federal agencies provided other help.
“We got tremendous assets, manpower from the federal government,” Byrnes said. “They made some technology available to us that was classified, is still classified.”
He said he researched this type of murder combination and could not find any other situation where members of the judiciary had been attacked so close together, adding he believed it is likely that is was the first time in the history of the country such a thing had happened.
And the federal government paid attention.
“That was how important it was, from Washington on down,” Byrnes said.
Presently, the sheriff said, the investigation has 17 terabytes of information related to the murders — enough to fill the hard drives of about 17 computers.
At the Friday Lions Club meeting, he reminded members that the local murder investigation continues.
“We continue to work that,” Byrnes said. “We have a lot of evidence coming in.”
“We’re building a stronger case every day.”

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KAUFMAN, Texas, July 26 (Reuters) - Texas will seek the death penalty against a former justice of the peace accused of killing of three people, including two local prosecutors, in shootings that spawned conspiracy theories and terrified a small community near Dallas.

Eric Williams and his wife, Kim, are accused in the deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, at their home in March.

They are also accused of gunning down Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse near a county courthouse in January.

McLelland and Hasse had prosecuted Eric Williams for the theft of office computer monitors.

Eric and Kim Williams both face capital murder charges. Eric Williams is also charged with making a terroristic threat, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Prosecutors said on Friday they will pursue the death penalty against Eric Williams, but remain undecided on whether they will take similar actions against Kim Williams.

Dressed in a suit, Eric Williams sat quietly in the courtroom during the hearing that was just down the hall from where he had once presided as a justice of the peace.

His wife has told police she drove the getaway car in the Hasse killing at the courthouse and was a passenger in the car when her husband shot the McLellands, according to arrest records.

Eric Williams lost his license to practice law last year after the two prosecutors were able to convict him of theft. Kim Williams has filed for divorce.

Jury selection is expected to begin next spring and trial in October 2014, according to Dallas County District Court Judge Michael Snipes, who was named to preside over the case in Kaufman County, about 30 miles southeast of Dallas.

Bill Wirskye and Toby Shook of Dallas have been named as special prosecutors in the case.

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No doubt in my mind on this. We're talking TX here..and a high profile DA. Same w/the cop they killed.

February 28, 2014

Eric Williams – charged with the capital murders of three Kaufman County residents – made his first appearance in Rockwall County on Feb. 21, a few weeks after a change of venue request was granted by visiting Dallas County District Judge Mike Snipes.

Williams is charged with the murders of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, and his wife, Cynthia.

During Friday’s hearing, the defense requested a continuance in order to have more time to review the case, which comes with an overwhelming amount of records and evidence collected by the state during the manhunt for Williams.

Snipes denied the motion for a continuance and said he intends to stay on schedule or jury selection, slated for March 28. The jury pool includes approximately 500 prospective jurors.

Although the request for a continuance was denied, Snipes allowed a temporary stay in DNA testing, allowing the defense to conduct independent testing at an alternative and neutral facility.

The defense team also mentioned Williams’ dress during the hearing, which included an orange jumpsuit, chains and shackles. The court had previously granted an order allowing Williams to appear unshackled and in a suit.

The trial date is set for Oct. 20.

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Posted: Sep 21, 2014 8:03 PM PDT
Updated: Sep 22, 2014 4:27 AM PDT
By: Chelsea Kretz - email

Jury selection begins Monday in the first of three trials in the highly publicized Kaufman County murders. Former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams is charged in the 2013 murders of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife Cynthia and Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.

The trial was moved to Rockwall County to provide a different pool of jurors. Prosecutors and defense attorneys go through an intense process in selecting the final jury.

Jury selection alone may take up to six weeks because the state and the defense will scrutinize every one of the jurors, their backgrounds, beliefs and possible relationships with Eric and Kim Williams, both charged with capital murder. "The clean slate juror for a high profile case is hugely hard to find," said lawyer jury consultant Mary Griffitts.

Griffitts said picking the perfect juror is one thing, but seating 12 takes time and scrutiny, especially in a capital murder case. "If I was working for the defense I would really hone in on the jurors belief about the death penalty because at the end of the day you are fighting for your clients life," she said.

The first of three trials is for Eric Williams and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In court filings, prosecutors say the motive for the murders was revenge for the burglary and theft prosecution of Williams in 2012.

Williams was convicted, lost his bench as Justice of the Peace and his law license.

Criminal Defense Attorney Pete Schulte is not involved in the trial but has been following the case closely. "This case looks pretty strong against Eric Williams, so if I was the defense attorney in this case I would be focusing on trying to save Eric Williams life," he said.

Williams has pleaded not guilty and the trial date is set for December 1st. "In looking at the evidence that the filings that the state of Texas has put in, in this case, it looks like they are going to rely a lot upon Kim Williams, the wife of Eric Williams, to prove their case. Now, if she is going to be a cooperating witness, it is going to be very tough for Eric Williams to win this trial on the guilt innocence stage," said Schulte.

Griffitts says high profile cases like this one come with their own kinds of problems. "There is an extra layer and that's the layer of the juror that maybe just wants to get in and be a juror in a famous case or an infamous case, because they may just look at their own personal gain a little bit later on," she said.

Social media inside the courtroom, said Griffitts, is another problem. "Before Facebook you know a judge would say to a jury don't talk about the case to your fellow jurors until all of the evidence, until you reach deliberations. With social media, now we have this ability not only to reach out to the outside world about what's going on, but they are talking to each other before all of the evidence has been put in," she said.

With many trials being overturned on appeal or resulting in mistrials, Griffitts said jurors should not talk to anyone about the case, especially fellow jurors. She said perhaps most importantly, jurors should not Google information about the case because you may learn things that are either not true or even relevant to the case. Griffitts said those kinds of things can lead to a mistrial.

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video..above link.

December 2, 2014 6:58 AM

ROCKWALL (CBSDFW.COM) - Prosecutor Bill Wirskye stated that forensics experts will take the witness stand on Tuesday in the second day of the Eric Williams murder trial.
The murders of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, his wife Cynthia, and his top assistant Mark Hasse in 2013 rocked the county and much of North Texas.
During the trial, that began in neighboring Rockwall County on Monday, Wirksye told jurors, “The amount of evidence in this case is staggering.”
In his opening statements, Wirskye quickly set the scene for jurors. He took them back to that early Saturday morning in March 2013, when Williams, a former Justice of the Peace, is accused of killing the McLellands in their home.
Wirskye told jurors, “He begins to execute his plan to execute one of his prosecutors. He comes in with an AR-15 and cuts down a defenseless Cynthia McLelland in a blizzard of bullets.” She was shot eight times.
Then, Wirskye said that Williams took aim at the district attorney. “He pulls the trigger repeatedly and hits McLelland over and over. Finally, the prosecutor falls. He stands over him repeatedly pulling the trigger.” The district attorney was shot 16 times.
The prosecutor said that the murders were out of revenge after McLelland and Hasse successfully prosecuted Williams for stealing county equipment. Williams is accused of murdering Hasse in January 2013.
Wirskye said that Williams first lied to prosecutors about killing all three people, but then later admitted to it. “You will hear a confession, a confession this man made to the murders,” Wirskye added. “He sent an email to law enforcement taking credit for the murders, thinking he’d remain anonymous, thinking law enforcement would never figure it out.”
Charles Tomlinson, a Dallas police officer and the son of the McLellands’ best friends, told jurors that he and his mom discovered the couple’s bodies. “She just fell to her knees and started crying, and then she pointed and said there’s shell casings right under your feet.”
Matthew Seymour, the attorney for Williams, did not give an opening statement.
Barry Sorrels, a defense attorney who has tried death penalty cases in the past and who is observing this trial, explained the defense’s tactic. “They don’t have a defense,” he said. “And so they waived the opening statement and this probably means their best hope is going to be at punishment, if he gets convicted of capital murder, in trying to talk the jury into a life sentence rather than a death sentence.”
One of the main unanswered questions so far is whether or not Eric Williams’ ex-wife, Kim, will testify against him. She is also charged with the three murders. Several months ago, in open court, Wirskye told Judge Mike Snipes that no plea deal has been offered to Kim Williams. But, Sorrels explained, he believes that, if she does testify against Eric Williams, she may be given a more lenient sentence.
Unlike Mr. Williams, prosecutors have not said whether or not they will seek the death penalty in her criminal case.
Sorrels said that Kim Williams has already helped investigators in the case against her ex-husband.

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