Authorities investigating the McLelland murders have released no motive for the shootings, but suspicion has fallen on a white power gang called the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. The gang's 4,000 members are active in the state's prisons, and are allegedly involved in drug dealing and prostitution.
The source also said that Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland’s wife was shot once — a revelation that conflicts with a search warrant affidavit filed by the Texas Rangers, and reported on by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The paper reported that each victim was shot multiple times.
Anxiety about security reportedly pushed an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston to withdraw from the prosecution of the alleged gang members, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Authorities soon connected the double-homicide to the murder of an assistant prosecutor just months before, and, on April 18, 2013, Eric Williams, 47, was arrested for the murders of the McLellands, as well as Chief Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse.
The day before Easter Sunday in 2013, a former justice of the peace in Kaufman County, Texas, entered the home of District Attorney Michael McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia, 65.
On the morning of Jan. 31, 2013, a gunman dressed all in black approached Hasse on the sidewalk while Hasse was on his way to the Kaufman County courthouse, according to CBS News. The gunman shot him in broad daylight, then drove off in a getaway car before anyone could react.
County Defense Attorney Dennis Jones told the jury that he overheard Williams making death threats against another attorney, according to court documents: “I’m just gonna kill him, kill his wife, kill his kids. I’m gonna burn his house down, stab him.”
Williams lost the case, was stripped of his position as Justice of the Peace and also lost his license to practice law, according to the Dallas Morning News. Shortly after his conviction, Williams began to plot his revenge, his wife, Kim, testified, according to court documents.
Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said recently the FBI was checking to see if Hasse's killing could be related to Clements'. Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements, died in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.
For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.
McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Rozell said.
Sources told CBS Dallas station KTVT the DA was shot multiple times with what is believed to be an assault rifle, while Cynthia McLelland was only shot once. Sources also say that there were no signs of forced entry.
has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., district attorney's office who tracks such cases.
Byrnes confirmed Sunday that the McLellands had been shot. As for whether their deaths were related to Hasse's slaying, Byrnes said there was nothing to indicate that "for sure," but declined to discuss it further during a news conference.
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, who was murdered at his home on March 30, 2012. (MyFoxDFW.com)
Investigators found the bodies of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, on Saturday, said Kaufman County sheriff's Lt. Justin Lewis. Police, FBI agents, Texas Rangers and deputies were part of the investigation.
McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. Click here for more from The Dallas Morning News. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
McLelland had said Hasse was one of 12 attorneys on his staff, all of whom handle hundreds of cases at a time.
Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities believe killed Clements and a pizza deliveryman two days earlier, was killed in a March 21 shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.
El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said Sunday that investigators had found no evidence so far connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."
Sheriff David Byrnes said Sunday that there was nothing to indicate for sure whether McLelland's slaying was connected to Hasse's. He declined to discuss it further. The sheriff also said he had no indication that white supremacist groups were involved in the killing of the DA.
Defense seeks change of venue in DA murders case Public defenders Matthew Seymour and John Wright filed for the motion to change venues, insisting that "there exists in Kaufman County, Texas, so great a prejudice against the defendant that the defendant cannot receive a trial by an impartial jury free from outside influences."
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, were found slain Saturday, March 30, 2013, two months after Mark Hasse, one of McLelland's top assistants, was gunned down in broad daylight near the Kaufman County Courthouse. In mid-April, Eric Lyle Wiilliams, a former Kaufman County justice of the peace, and his wife, Kim Lene Williams, were arrested and charged with capital murder in all three deaths. Prosecutors say Eric Williams planned and carried out the killings as revenge for McLelland and Hasse prosecuting him in a theft and burglary case that resulted in his removal from his justice of the peace post and the loss of his law license.
In his second point, appellant claims that the district attorney intentionally elicited "prohibited testimony." The State had called appellant's father as a reputation witness, and appellant's father testified that appellant's reputation for truthfulness and veracity was "very bad." Appellant's lawyer then cross-examined this witness in an attempt to show bias, accusing the witness of not having much to do with this son since the "big hassle with his mama over the divorce"#N#[879 S.W.2d 164]#N#and suggesting that the witness would like to see his son convicted in order to eliminate any competition in the wrecker business in the Cross Plains area. On redirect examination by the district attorney, the record shows:
Appellant argues in his first two supplemental points of error that the evidence is insufficient to show a proper in-court identification of appellant. These points are overruled for two reasons. First, several witnesses identified appellant during their testimony before the jury. For example, the first witness testified as follows:
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys David L. Goldberg and Jennifer H. Callahan.
An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.