Death Row Inmate Escapes

A death row inmate escaped early Friday by cutting through a fence, hiding on a prison building roof, jumping another fence and avoiding several shots fired by a guard.

Dozens of law officers and tracking dogs formed a manhunt for convicted murderer Martin E. Gurule, 29, after he leapt over a perimeter fence at the prison outside Huntsville about 65 miles north of Houston.

It was the first escape from Texas' death row since the 1930s, Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. Last year, Texas executed 37 people, more than any other state. There have been 17 executions so far this year.

Guards believe Gurule and six other death row prisoners cut through an interior fence while other inmates were in the recreation yard, then hid on the roof of a building after most of the inmates were returned to their cells, Fitzgerald said.

"What these guys had done was fashion some dummies so it appeared someone was sleeping in their beds," he said.

The seven men hid for several hours on the building roof.

A guard spotted the seven jumping from the roof at about 12:20 a.m., sounded the alarm, and then fired 18 to 20 shots, Fitzgerald said. Gurule managed to jump the outer perimeter fence at that point but the other six surrendered when they realized they were being fired at.

Searchers later found no traces of blood.

"We do consider this inmate dangerous," prison spokesman Larry Todd said. "We have no reason to believe that he is armed, but we do think that they had been planning this for several days."

The other six inmates surrendered.

Gurule was convicted of the 1992 shooting of Mike Piperis, a restaurant owner in Corpus Christi, during a robbery. Last December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals turned down an appeal by Gurule that challenged the exclusion of two people from jury service in his case. But no date had been set for his execution.

By TERRI LANGFORD