Summary:

Oklahoma native Miguel Richardson was on the run for more than a year after the 3/31/79 robbery and slayings of two security guards at a San Antonio area Holiday Inn.

John Ebbert and the second victim were investigating a complaint from a motel guest when they found Richardson attempting to break into a room. As they were escorting him to the office, a gun that had been concealed in his waistband fell to the floor. He grabbed the gun and held the guards at gunpoint.

He handcuffed one of them, took their money and then shot them both. He was not arrested until 6/80 in Denver, Colorado.

Citations:

Richardson v. State, 744 S.W.2d 65 (Tex.Cr.App. 1987) (Direct Appeal).
Richardson v. Texas, 109 S.Ct. 3235 (1989) (Cert. Granted).
Richardson v. Texas, 113 S.Ct. 3026 (1993)(Cert. Granted).
Richardson v. State, 886 S.W.2d 769 (Tex.Cr.App. 1991) (On Remand).
Richardson v. State, 901 S.W.2d 941 (Tex.Crim.App. 1994) (On Remand).
Richardson v. Texas, 115 S.Ct. 2617 (1995) (Cert. Denied).
Richardson v. Texas, 119 S.Ct. 550 (1998) (Cert. Denied).
Richardson v. Johnson, 248 F.3d 1139 (5th Cir. 2001) (Habeas).
Richardson v. Johnson, 121 S.Ct. 2244 (2001) (Cert. Denied).
Richardson v. Johnson, 256 F.3d 257 (5th Cir. 2001) (Habeas/Competency).
Richardson v. Johnson, 121 S.Ct. 2580 (2001) (Stay).

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Miguel Richardson Scheduled to be Executed

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Miguel Richardson, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 26, 2001.

On September 16, 1981, Miguel Richardson was convicted of the murder of John Ebbert in San Antonio, Texas, during the course of a robbery.

A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

In March 1979, John Ebbert and Howard Powers were security guards at a Holiday Inn in San Antonio, Texas.

Ebbert and Powers were dispatched early in the morning of March 31, 1979, to investigate a complaint from a guest that someone was trying to break into her room. The room was occupied by women from Mexico City. Shortly after the front desk clerk had sent the guards to investigate the complaint, the guest called again and stated she thought she had heard gunshots.

Less than one hour later, the bodies of the two security guards were found in a first floor stairwell. Both had been shot at close range with a .38 caliber pistol. The empty wallet of one of the guards was found nearby.

At the time of the offense, Richardson was traveling with three young women and the four of them occupied the room across the hall from the Mexico City guest who had called security originally. The three young women, aged 17, 17 and 16, were working as prostitutes in the various cities the group visited. All three women testified at the trial.

On the evening before the offense, Richardson had mentioned that one of the women from Mexico City was wearing what he considered to be expensive jewelry.

According to one prostitute's testimony, Richardson awakened her on the morning of the offense and told her he had disguised himself and, armed with a .38 caliber pistol he had acquired several days earlier, attempted to gain entry to the room occupied by the women from Mexico City.

He was interrupted while trying to break in by the two security guards. The guards were escorting Richardson down the stairs to the front desk to establish his identity when Richardson's pistol, which was in his waistband, fell to the floor.

Richardson grabbed the gun, handcuffed one of the guards, took their money, shot and killed both of them, and returned to his room.

At Richardson's request, the woman went to the scene of the murders and wiped the area with a towel to remove any fingerprints.

The victims had not yet been discovered, and she saw their lifeless bodies in the tairwell. She returned to the room and, at Richardson's request, disposed of the bullets and spent shells by flushing them down the toilet.

Richardson later told another of the prostitutes about the murders. Richardson boasted to two of the women that he killed the guards after they had given him their money and begged for their lives.

Within days of the shooting, Richardson and two of the underage prostitutes fled the State of Texas and reached Denver, Colorado, where they were apprehended.

While in Colorado and fighting extradition to Texas (Richardson fought extradition for more than two years), Richardson also confessed to these murders to Mark Stanley Seiver, another inmate.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In May 1981, Richardson was charged by an indictment returned in Bexar County, Texas, with the capital offense of intentional murder of John Ebbert during a robbery.

A jury found Richardson guilty of the capital offense on September 16, 1981, rejecting a lesser-offense instruction on murder.

A separate punishment hearing ensued, and, on September 18, 1981, the jury answered affirmatively the two special issues submitted pursuant to former Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.

In accordance with state law, the trial court assessed punishment at death. Appeal was automatic to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed the conviction and sentence on October 28, 1987.

On July 3, 1989, the United States Supreme Court, however, granted Richardson's petition for writ of certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded the action for further consideration.

On remand, the Court of Criminal Appeals again affirmed the conviction and sentence, then denied Richardson's motion for rehearing on September 18, 1991.

On June 28, 1993, the Supreme Court again, however, granted Richardson's petition for writ of certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded the action for further consideration.

On remand, the Court of Criminal Appeals again affirmed the conviction and sentence, then denied Richardson's motion for rehearing on September 21, 1994.

This time, on June 26, 1995, the Supreme Court denied certiorari review. Richardson filed an application for state writ of habeas corpus with the state trial court of conviction in December 1996.

After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that habeas relief be denied. The trial court's findings were adopted by the Court of Criminal Appeals on June 10, 1998.

Richardson again filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court denied on November 30, 1998. Richardson proceeded into federal court by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, on October 8, 1998.

By orders entered on March 28, 2000, the district court denied habeas relief and permission to appeal.

On April 16, 2000, the district court denied post-judgment relief sought by Richardson and again denied permission to appeal.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit similarly denied Richardson permission to appeal on January 23, 2001. Richardson again filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which the Supreme Court denied on June 11, 2001.

On June 5, 2001, Richardson filed a request for clemency and a reprieve with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The Board voted on June 22, 2001, to deny clemency and a reprieve.

On June 7, 2001, Richardson filed a motion with the state trial court of conviction claiming that he is incompetent to be executed or was forcibly medicated for the purpose of rendering him competent to be executed. On June 19, 2001, the trial court rejected these claims.

On June 14, 2001, Richardson filed a successive application for state writ of habeas corpus raising the competency claims and also claiming that newly discovered evidence demonstrates that he suffers from bipolar disorder and that he might have been under its effects at the time of the offense.

The trial court denied his application for state writ of habeas corpus on June 20, 2001. Richardson appealed that decision to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which dismissed it as an abuse of the writ on June 21, 2001.

The following day, Richardson filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Also on June 21st, Richardson filed two petitions for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, raising his competency claims.

The district court dismissed those petitions on June 21st and June 22nd, respectively.

On June 22nd, Richardson filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which is pending. As of 5 p.m. Monday, June 25, 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had not yet ruled on the writ of certiorari and the appeal respectively.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

At the punishment phase of trial, the state presented the following evidence. In 1973, Richardson was convicted of possession of stolen mail, a federal offense.

The parole officer assigned to Richardson's case testified that he was regularly asked to predict future behavior and that he considered Richardson to be a high risk and dangerous.

On April, 20, 1980, Richardson attacked the shift commander at the Denver County Jail where he was being held pending his extradition to Texas. Richardson became violent and agitated in the shift commander's office after being informed that he would be placed in isolation, and he attempted to strike the officer with a fire extinguisher.

On June 19, 1980, Richardson attempted to escape from Denver authorities after being taken to the hospital.

This time, after his handcuffs were removed, Richardson stabbed Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Hall in the neck with a homemade shank that had been concealed in his pants. The shank penetrated the right side of Hall's neck to his spine. Richardson attempted to escape from custody again.

In the early morning hours of May 6, 1997, Richardson and several other inmates (including two other death row inmates) were being returned to state prison in Huntsville from the Bexar County jail.

The guard driving the transport vehicle stopped for a restroom break near Houston. As the driver went to ascertain whether the restroom was secure to permit the inmates to use it, the other guard opened the van's side door.

Suddenly, Richardson and the two other death row inmates pushed their way through, knocking the guard to the ground. As the inmates beat the fallen guard and attempted to wrest the gun from the guard's holster, the first guard returned to the van and, using his baton, knocked them away from the fallen guard.

One guard was able to draw his weapon and convince Richardson and the other two death row inmates to get back inside the van.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Oklahoma native Miguel Richardson was on the run for more than a year after the 3/31/79 robbery and slayings of two security guards at a San Antonio area Holiday Inn.

John Ebbert and the second victim were investigating a complaint from a motel guest when they found Richardson attempting to break into a room. As they were escorting him to the office, a gun that had been concealed in his waistband fell to the floor.

He grabbed the gun and held the guards at gunpoint. He handcuffed one of them, took their money and then shot them both. He was not arrested until 6/80 in Denver, Colorado.

UPDATE

A former pimp who became a church group leader while in prison was executed today for fatally shooting one of 2 hotel security guards slain during a robbery in San Antonio more than 22 years ago. Miguel "Silky" Richardson, 46, with a history of violence and attempted escapes, was executed by lethal injection in Texas. "I feel so much love," he said as witnesses filed into the chamber.

Richardson spoke for nearly 8 minutes about love, smiling and winking the entire time. He then began chanting in a foreign language, his voice rising and falling with a tear running from his right eye, before shouting "take me! I'm ready! I'm your friend, I'm not a monster being executed. I am a minister of love," he said.

As the drugs began flowing, Richardson remarked it was a "good day to die. Take me God." He was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m. CDT. Richardson adopted the nickname "Silky" after the lead character in a 1970s book about a Harlem, N.Y., pimp.

At the time of the March 1979 shootings of security guards John Ebbert and Howard Powers at a San Antonio Holiday Inn, Richardson was sharing a room with 3 prostitutes, two 17 years old and one 16. The security guards confronted him after responding to a complaint from a woman across the hall that someone was trying to break into her room.

Testimony later showed Richardson had coveted the expensive jewelry worn by the woman staying in that room. When Richardson -- wearing a woman's wig -- was being escorted down a stairwell to the hotel lobby, the 2 unarmed guards, John Ebbert and Howard Powers, were robbed and shot to death. Richardson was arrested a few days later in Denver during another robbery and fought extradition to Texas for 2 years.

Over the 20 years since his capital murder conviction, Richardson's case went to the U.S. Supreme Court at least 6 times, including an 11th-hour review that was rejected by the justices late Tuesday afternoon. "I think it should be frustrating to all the citizens of the state," Steve Hilbig, who prosecuted the murder case in 1981, said of the time it's taken to carry out the death sentence. "It loses its meaning when it takes 20 years to carry forward. You don't want any shortcuts. You want to make sure all legal and procedural requirements have been complied with. But I'm not real sure it takes 20 years to do that."

His appeals primarily focused on his mental competency and whether Richardson, with a history of illegal drug use, should be given anti-psychotic drugs by prison officials without his consent to keep him competent.

Among those who testified against him at his trial were the prostitutes who accompanied him, telling a Bexar County jury how one of them wiped the shooting scene with a towel to remove his fingerprints and how she flushed down a toilet the spent shells from the .38-caliber pistol used in the slayings.

They also provided details of the shootings as he described them. "One of the girls testified how he made (the guards) beg for their lives," recalled Hilbig, now in private practice in San Antonio.

Since his arrest, Richardson, who had a federal conviction for mail theft in his native Oklahoma, had several violent outbursts. In Denver, court records showed he attacked the shift commander at the county jail in April 1980 and tried to beat him with a fire extinguisher.

Two months later, he tried to escape by stabbing a deputy in the neck with a shank, a homemade knife he fashioned from a spike, then grabbed the officer's gun and repeatedly tried to shoot.

The guard, testifying later in a voice left hoarse by the injury, told how he was able to keep the gun from discharging by jamming the skin between his thumb and index finger between the firing pin of the pistol and the shell in the chamber. The officer showed jurors how he was left with a disfigured hand.

Four years ago, Richardson and 2 other death row inmates tried to overpower guards as they were being moved in a prison van from San Antonio to Huntsville. Friends and relatives who believed he should be allowed to live said Richardson had a religious transformation while in prison, where he founded a church group.

Miguel Richardson executed

Amarillo Globe-News

Miguel A. "Silky" Richardson, 46, was executed by lethal injection on 26 June in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a motel security guard.

In March 1979, a motel desk clerk in San Antonio received a complaint from a guest that someone was trying to break into her room. The clerk sent two security guards, John Ebbert and Howard Powers, to investigate.

A few minutes later, the guest called the clerk again to say that she thought she heard gunshots. Less than an hour later, the bodies of Ebbert and Powers were found in a stairwell. They had been shot, and one of their empty wallets was found nearby.

A few days after the murders, Miguel Richardson, then 24, was apprehended in Denver, Colorado with two underage prostitutes. Richardson fought extradition to Texas for more than two years.

At Richardson's trial, the two prostitutes, and a third underage prostitute that was with Richardson on the night of the killings, testified. They said that the four of them were staying at the Holiday Inn across the hall from the woman who reported the break-in attempt. They said that Richardson had commented on the expensive jewelry she appeared to be wearing.

One of them testified that Richardson told her that he had disguised himself in a woman's wig and clothing and was trying to break into the woman's room when he was interrupted by the two security guards.

The guards were escorting him from the front desk when his .38-caliber pistol fell from his waistband to the floor. Richardson grabbed the gun, handcuffed one of the guards, took their money, shot and killed both of them, and returned to his room.

At Richardson's request, one of his prostitutes went back to the scene and wiped fingerprints away with a towel, then returned to the room and disposed of the spent cartridges by flushing them down the toi et. Another of the prostitutes testified that Richardson had boasted to her about killing the guards after he took their money.

Richardson had previously served three years of a six-year sentence in a federal reformatory for possession of stolen mail. He was paroled in March 1976.

Richardson also attacked a jailer in April 1980 in Denver, while he was pending extradition to Texas. In June 1980, he stabbed a deputy sheriff in the neck with a homemade shank, tried to shoot him, and attempted to escape. A jury convicted Richardson of the capital murder of John G. Ebbert in September 1981, and sentenced him to death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in October 1987. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated his conviction twice, first in July 1989 and again in September 1994. Each time, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction upon review.

In June 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case again. Richardson filed eight more appeals in state and federal courts over the next five years, all of which were denied. Richardson's appeals centered around his competency at the time of the crime and his competency to be executed.

He claimed that he suffered from a bipolar disorder at the time of the killings. He also claimed that the state of Texas was medicating him in order to keep him mentally competent so that he could be executed.

In May 1997, Richardson and several other inmates attempted to escape while being transported. In June 2001, Richardson filed seven more appeals in state and federal courts. All of these appeals were denied. He also filed a clemency request with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which was rejected.

At his execution, Richardson spoke for nearly eight minutes, speaking repeatedly of love. "I go out loving everyone and everything ... I shed tears of love - may they nourish everyone." He also said, "I am a minister of love." As the lethal drugs began flowing, he said that it was a "good day to die. Take me, God." He was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.

After the execution, John Ebbert's wife noted that Richardson did not apologize for the murders, nor did he ask for forgiveness. However, she did say that justice had been served. "It was a promise I made to my husband 22 years ago when he was lying in his coffin that I was going to see this through to the end. This is the end." Of the 455 offenders currently on Texas' death row, 16 are there for crimes committed in the 1970's.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson

Txexecutions.org

HUNTSVILLE (AP) - A former pimp who became a church group leader while in prison is headed to the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening for fatally shooting one of two hotel security guards slain during a robbery in San Antonio more than 22 years ago.

Miguel "Silky" Richardson, 46, with a history of violence and attempted escapes, would be the ninth condemned inmate to receive lethal injection this year in Texas, where a record 40 convicted killers were put to death last year.

At the time of the March 1979 shootings of security guards John Ebbert and Howard Powers at a San Antonio Holiday Inn, Richardson was sharing a room with three teen-age prostitutes. Security guards confronted him after responding to a complaint from a woman across the hall that someone was trying to break into her room.

Testimony later showed Richardson wanted the jewelry worn by the woman staying in that room. When Richardson - wearing a woman's wig - was being escorted down a stairwell to the hotel lobby, the two unarmed guards, John Ebbert and Howard Powers, were robbed and shot to death.

Richardson was arrested a few days later in Denver during another robbery and fought extradition to Texas for two years. Over the 20 years since his capital murder conviction, Richardson's case went to the U.S. Supreme Court at least six times, including an 11th-hour review pending before justices Tuesday. "I think it should be frustrating to all the citizens of the state," Steve Hilbig, who prosecuted the murder case in 1981, said of the time it's taken to carry out the death sentence. "It loses its meaning when it takes 20 years to carry forward. "You want to make sure all legal and procedural requirements have been complied with. But I'm not ... sure it takes 20 years."

His appeals primarily focused on his mental competency and whether Richardson, with a history of illegal drug use, should be given anti-psychotic drugs by prison officials to keep him competent.

Among those who testified against him at his trial were the prostitutes who accompanied him, telling a Bexar County jury how one of them wiped the shooting scene with a towel to remove his fingerprints and how she flushed down a toilet the spent shells from the .38-caliber pistol used in the slayings.

They also provided details of the shootings as he described them. "One of the girls testified how he made (the guards) beg for their lives," said Hilbig, now in private practice in San Antonio. In Denver, court records showed he attacked the shift commander at the county jail in April 1980 and tried to beat him with a fire extinguisher.

Two months later, he tried to escape by stabbing a deputy in the neck with a homemade knife, then grabbed the officer's gun and repeatedly tried to shoot. The guard told how he was able to keep the gun from discharging by jamming the skin between his thumb and index finger between the firing pin and the shell in the chamber of the pistol. He showed jurors how he had been left with a disfigured hand.

Friends and relatives who believed he should be allowed to live said Richardson had a religious transformation while in prison, where he founded a church group.

  

256 F.3d 257 (5th Cir. 2001)

MIGUEL RICHARDSON, Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
GARY L. JOHNSON, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice,
Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 01-50568

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

June 25, 2001, Decided

BY THE COURT:

II

III

IV

V