George Rivas
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George Rivas (born May 6, 1970) is the former ringleader of the infamous Texas 7 criminal group. Rivas alleguedly is a career criminal who is currently sitting on the Texas death row.
He was born in El Paso, Texas. He was raised by his grandparents at age six after his parents divorced. Rivas was dreaming of being a police officer in high school, but his lust for money and guns helped shape him into a criminal. He had named his dogs Ruger and Baretta, after two types of guns. He never participated in high school activities.
One year after graduating from Ysleta High School, he committed his first robbery and burglary. Since at the time, he had no prior criminal record, he was sentenced to ten years of probation. Meanwhile, he enrolled as a general studies major at the University of Texas at El Paso.
He eventually started his own string of robberies. He robbed a Radio Shack in El Paso on October 3, 1992. On October 23, he robbed a Checker's Auto Parts store. About two weeks later, he robbed an Oshman's sporting goods store. After three semesters at the school, he dropped out in the spring of 1993. On May 12, 1993, he robbed a Furr's Grocery store in El Paso. On May 25, 1993, Rivas and a friend robbed a Toys "Я" Us. However, he made a mistake, and he got arrested. He had been suspected of robbing stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
Rivas was sentenced to 18 terms of life in prison, 17 of them consecutively. He grew bored of prison life, and he decided to carve up a plan to escape.
Rivas, along with six other men, broke out of the John Connally Unit in Kenedy, Texas on December 13, 2000. The following day, on December 14, he and his teammates robbed a Radio Shack in Pearland, Texas. His experience in robbing the previous Radio Shack helped him out there.
On December 24, the group robbed an Oshman's in Irving, Texas. He and his group shot to death a police officer named Aubrey Hawkins. The reward over him and his friends grew as time passed after the infamous robbery and murder.
Rivas was nabbed at a trailer park in Colorado on January 23 inside a Jeep Cherokee, with Joseph Garcia and Michael Rodriguez. Three others- Randy Halprin, Patrick Murphy, and Donald Newbury, were arrested over the next two days. Larry Harper killed himself.
Rivas was extradited to Texas, tried and sentenced to death. He is still on death row.