Martin Gurule

Martin Edward Gurule (November 7, 1969 – November 27, 1998) was an American prisoner who successfully escaped from death row in Texas in 1998. It was the first successful breakout from Texas death row since Raymond Hamilton was broken out by Bonnie and Clyde on January 16, 1934. This is the most recent instance of a prisoner escaping from death row in the United States. Another death row inmate, Charles Victor Thompson, escaped from custody in Texas 2005, but he was being held at the county jail after a resentencing hearing.

Life Martin Gurule was raised by his father and grandmother. His mother died shortly before his first birthday. He attended W. B. Ray High School in Corpus Christi and cared for intellectually disabled patients at Corpus Christi State School, an institution run by the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. His 23-year-old girlfriend, Malisa Smith, worked on the checkout at the U & I restaurant in Corpus Christi.

Crimes On October 12, 1992, Gurule entered U & I late at night and fatally shot restaurant co-owner Mike Piperis and employee Anthony Staton. Gurule claimed that Piperis had ordered him to come to the restaurant that night because Piperis wanted to discuss an accusation from Gurule of Piperis committing tax evasion. Then, Gurule claimed, Piperis attacked him and Gurule used his firearm in self-defense.

Investigators contradicted Gurule's version of events. They alleged that Staton was sitting on a chair when he was shot in the back of the head. Piperis was found kneeling against a chair in front of an open safe, and had also been shot in the back of the head. It was also discovered that Gurule's girlfriend, Malisa Smith, had been fired from her job at the restaurant in the week before the killings after $350 turned up missing from her cash register. The prosecution argued that Gurule and Smith had jointly planned to rob the restaurant. Gurule had cut the phone lines and stole $9,000 from the safe.

At the sentencing phase, the prosecution said that Gurule had convictions dating back to 1986 for credit card fraud, theft and two bank robberies. He also had a pending assault charge against him. Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdéz called the killings a "crime that had had been building up over several years". Gurule was transferred to the Ellis Unit in an unincorporated area of Walker County. It is the only unit in Texas that has death row for male inmates. Gurule was selected for the Work Capable Program, together with around 150 other death row inmates. This was a trial program that allowed selected death row inmates to move relatively freely outside their cells, to have contact with other, non-death row inmates, and to carry out supervised work within the prison. His appeal against his death sentence was denied a year before his escape.

Escape During a Thanksgiving dinner on November 26, 1998, Gurule and six other death row inmates hid in a recreation room. Prior to leaving their cells for dinner, they had placed cushions and sheets in their beds in such a way that the guards would not suspect anything was amiss. They also darkened their prison uniforms with marker pens so that they would be less visible at night. After the cells were locked for the night, they broke through a door to the recreational yard and then through a separating fence. Once they reached the main prison yard, they scaled the roof of a building and waited for complete darkness. James Edward Clayton (32), executed May 25, 2000, convicted of murdering Lori Barrett in 1987. Henry Earl Dunn (24), executed February 6, 2003, convicted of murdering Nicholus West in 1993. Gustavo Julian Garcia (26), executed February 16, 2016, convicted of killing Craig Turski in 1990. He also killed Gregory Martin in 1991, but was never tried. Howard Guidry (22), on death row since 1997, convicted of murdering Farah Fratta in 1994. Ponchai Wilkerson (27), executed March 14, 2000, convicted of murdering Chung Yi in 1990.