Execution Report: Miguel Richardson

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 toilet. 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.

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