“Texas 7” gang member gets August execution date

A death row inmate who was part of the notorious “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners has received an execution date for late this summer.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials say they’ve received documents setting 45-year-old Joseph Garcia for lethal injection Aug. 30.

Garcia was serving 50 years for a Bexar County murder when he and six others broke out of a South Texas prison in December 2000 and then committed numerous robberies, including the Christmas Eve holdup of a sporting goods store in the Dallas suburb of Irving where a police officer, 29-year-old Aubrey Hawkins, was killed.

The fugitives were captured in Colorado after a six-week national manhunt. One killed himself there.

Garcia is one of three of the gang on death row. Three others have been executed.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)