Kaufman County murders

On January 31, 2013, Mark Hasse was shot and killed while walking in the 100 block of East Grove Street in Kaufman, Texas.[5] Hasse was the chief assistant district attorney for the Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney's Office.[6] He was walking from his car to the courthouse when a gunman shot him repeatedly and then fled the area in a waiting car.[7] Hasse, 57, had been an attorney for many years, and had previously served as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County under District Attorney Henry Wade. He had worked for Kaufman County since 2010 as a prosecutor, and was also a licensed police officer commissioned with the district attorney's office.

A large manhunt was conducted by law-enforcement agencies, including the Kaufman Police Department, the Kaufman County Sheriff, several Kaufman County Constable's Offices, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Marshals Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.[6] During the course of the investigation, a number of leads were followed and news of the investigation captured headlines across the nation. Most hypotheses involved allegations that the Aryan Brotherhood, a Neo-Nazi prison gang, had been responsible for the murder; they were later found to be untrue.[8] The speculation was made by other Kaufman defense attorneys acquainted with Hasse, who knew that Hasse “dealt with cases involving methamphetamine in the county involving gangs and white supremacist groups.”[6][9]

On March 30, 2013, the bodies of Kaufman County Criminal District Attorney Michael McLelland, 63, and his wife, Cynthia (Woodward) McLelland, 65, were found in their home located in Talty in rural Kaufman County.[10] The murdered couple was discovered by Dallas police officer C.J. Tomlinson and his step-father Skeet Phillips who were both family friends of the McLellands.[11] The duo entered the home to check on the couple after a family member was unable to contact them;[10] Tomlinson's mother had called him after her phone calls to both McLellands, trying to arrange a time to drop off vegetables for a dinner Cynthia McLelland was preparing for the Phillips family, had gone unanswered.[12] Tomlinson found the front door closed but unlocked — unusual in a situation in which McLelland had, like his colleagues, been particularly alert to personal safety since the Hasse murder — and noticed shell casings on the entryway floor as he carefully opened the door.[12] Both victims had been shot and killed in what was described as a home invasion-type assault on their property.[13]

McLelland had been elected to his office in 2010 and was widely viewed as an excellent replacement for the previous district attorney, who had been arrested for driving under the influence while in office.[14] Mike McLelland was an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve for 23 years, and worked as a clinical psychologist before pursuing a legal career.[15] Cynthia McLelland worked as a clinical psychologist for many years before becoming a psychiatric nurse at Terrell State Hospital.[10][15]

Following the McLelland murders, numerous elected officials in the county were placed under protection by law-enforcement officers at home and at work. Security was visibly increased at the Kaufman County Courthouse.[13]