Former prosecutor talks of living in fear after slayings of Texas DA and senior colleague
Prosecutor Shannon Hebert at first thought her colleague, Mark Hasse, must have been struck by a car before he was found fatally injured not far from the courthouse in Kaufman County, Texas.
When she found out he had been shot to death on Jan. 31, 2013, she thought Hasse must have had an accident with his own gun. But she soon learned the truth: The 57-year-old senior prosecutor had been ambushed and shot multiple times as he was walking to work from a nearby parking lot.
Initially, no one but District Attorney Mike McLelland thought former Justice of the Peace Eric Williams could be responsible for the slaying. McLelland shared his belief with county officials, police, the FBI and news media seemingly to little avail, reports WFAA.
Then, as Easter weekend loomed, Hebert got a call on her cellphone. McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, had been murdered at their home.
At that point, despite 24-hour police protection, Hebert and others began wearing bulletproof vests to work.
“It shook prosecutors all over the country,” she told the station.”I was receiving calls that they were getting protection all over Texas. That they had never been this scared in their lives.”
However, the link to Williams seemed clearer: He had lost his law license and his job after Hasse and McLelland prosecuted him for stealing county computers. The trial was so emotionally charged that both prosecutors armed themselves.
Weeks later, Williams and his wife, Kim, were arrested and charged with capital murder.
Even though Hebert had suspected him, she had a hard time getting her head around the murder allegations.
“Did I believe he stole the monitors? Absolutely,” she told WFAA. “But I didn’t think he was a bad person. I can’t even put it into words how shocking it is.”
Investigators contend that Williams also wanted to kill two former judges, including the current Kaufman County DA.
Now no longer at the DA’s office, Hebert will be following Williams’ trial at a distance.
A jury was selected earlier this month and is scheduled to begin hearing the case on Dec. 1, reports inForney.com.
The defense has been focusing on efforts to suppress evidence and challenges to the jury-selection process, according to the Freestone County Times and the Kaufman Herald.
Regardless of what happens at trial the slayings have left her and others “forever changed,” Hebert says.
