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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Texas D.A. Murdered

DALLAS (CN) - A Texas district attorney and his wife were murdered Saturday in their home outside Dallas, two months after the D.A.'s assistant prosecutor was murdered going to the courthouse.

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland was shot repeatedly inside his home, and his wife, Cynthia, was shot once. Citing "sources," CBS News reported they were shot with an "assault rifle."

Two months ago, Kaufman County assistant D.A. Mark Hasse was murdered going to work. Two men fled in a Ford Taurus.

Hasse had been "heavily involved" in investigating the Aryan Brotherhood, and two hours after he was murdered, two members of the white racist gang pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges, in a case Hasse helped investigate.

After Hasse was murdered, his boss, McLelland, told the killers through the media that he would "find you, pull you out of whatever hole you're in, bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the full extent of the law."

CBS News reported that the McLellands were murdered Saturday night as they prepared to go to bed. Cynthia McLelland was found in her nightgown.

Mike McLelland, an Army veteran, said he carried a gun at all times since Hasse was killed.

The McLellands lived just outside of Forney, in Kaufman County, 20 miles from Dallas.

Kaufman County, pop. 104,000, is immediately east of Dallas County. Its seat is Kaufman.

After the McLellands were murdered, a Republican congressman from Texas told CNN: "I believe it is a group. It could possibly be the Aryan Brotherhood."

Congressman Ted Poe was a judge and prosecutor in Texas before he was elected to Congress.

On March 19, Colorado state prison director Tom Clements was murdered in the doorway of his house.

Evan Spencer Ebel, a white racist, died in a shootout with Texas deputies after Clements was killed. Ebel, a former Colorado inmate, is believed to have killed Clements.

In response to Clements' murder, McLelland commented: "We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year."

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