Michael McBride was executed by the State of Texas for a double murder
According to court documents Michael McBride and Christian Fisher ended their relationship. Fisher asked for the money that McBride owed her and he told her to come over to his home and get a painting that was worth the money that he owed. Christian Fisher would show up with her friend James Holzer who would be fatally shot by McBride
Michael McBride would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael McBride would be executed by lethal injection on May 11 2000
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When Was Michael McBride Executed
Michael McBride was executed on May 11 2000
Michael McBride Case
McBride was convicted of the shooting deaths of Christian Fisher and James Holzer, both eighteen years old. On October 18, 1985, Holzer, Cody Minnick, and Karen Tidwell, went to Lubbock to visit Fisher who was attending Texas Tech University. McBride, whom Fisher had been dating for about eleven months and with whom she had a “very stormy” relationship, was angry that Holzer and Minnick were staying in Fisher’s apartment for the weekend. On Saturday, October 19, 1985, McBride entered Fisher’s apartment with a key and attacked Holzer as he lay sleeping on the couch. Minnick testified McBride was screaming, “You are sleeping with my girlfriend.” Minnick intervened, and while he and Holzer wrestled with McBride, a glass bookcase was broken in Fisher’s apartment. After being subdued, McBride yelled at Fisher “to bend down and pick up” his keys, and then McBride picked up someone’s sunglasses, crushed them, and threw them on the floor. McBride then grabbed his own sunglasses and left.
The foursome (Fisher, Tidwell, Minnick, and Holzer) did not hear from McBride again until Monday evening, October 21st, when he phoned Fisher. McBride and Fisher were apparently ending their relationship, and Fisher wanted some money McBride owed her. McBride told Fisher to come to his house “alone” and he would give her a painting worth the amount he owed her. Before concluding the phone call, McBride also told Fisher, “If I can’t have you, nobody will.”
Fisher’s friends expressed concern for her safety if she were to go to McBride’s house alone, so the foursome proceeded to McBride’s in two cars. Fisher and Holzer parked in front of McBride’s house, while Minnick and Tidwell parked several car lengths behind them. McBride’s house was very dark and no one answered when Fisher knocked at the front door. As Fisher was walking back towards the street, Minnick noticed a figure behind his car and heard a gun cock, and then McBride pointed a .30 caliber M-1 carbine rifle, with a 30 round clip, at him. McBride demanded Minnick and Tidwell exit the car or else he would kill them, and he proceeded to smash out Minnick’s driver’s side window with the rifle butt. McBride also fired two shots into the air, which Minnick described as “warning shots.” McBride then turned his attention toward Fisher and Holzer, and at that time Minnick escaped to a neighbor’s home for help.
A neighbor of McBride’s, Patrick Potter, and Tidwell both witnessed the double homicide. Potter lived in an apartment behind a house which was across the street from McBride’s. While sitting in his apartment, he saw a male matching McBride’s description run past his open front door. As his dogs took chase, Potter followed and saw McBride bash out Minnick’s window. Potter returned home to tell his wife to call the police, and then went back to the scene, where he heard McBride load his weapon. Tidwell witnessed McBride and Fisher struggling with the rifle in the middle of the street immediately before McBride shot Fisher. Fisher yelled at McBride, “You won’t do it.” Fisher sustained ten gunshot wounds to her face, chest, abdomen, and thigh. McBride continued to shoot Fisher at close range even after she had fallen to the ground.
After McBride murdered Fisher, he fired several shots through the windshield of her car, repeatedly striking Holzer who was now in the driver’s seat. McBride then “hopped around” to the driver’s side of the car, smashed out that window, and fired again at Holzer, at one point actually placing the rifle against his head. Holzer sustained nine gunshot wounds, one of which destroyed his heart and was fatal. McBride then shot himself under the chin, the bullet traveling through his mouth and exiting his forehead. Police officers and EMS personnel arriving at the scene found McBride on his hands and knees on the ground apparently trying to crawl to his weapon, which several witnesses kicked away from him. He was violent and aggressive with the EMS personnel, resisting their efforts, making threatening remarks, and using profanity. He admitted shooting Fisher and Holzer “because it was time for them to go.” At the hospital, McBride was more cooperative, and even commented to a male nurse that “if you ever need any pointers or information on how to handle your women, just let me know.”
Prior to the murders, Michael McBride had moved to Lubbock to be with Fisher while she attended Texas Tech. He was employed as a bartender at a Lubbock country club, but Fisher helped him financially “all the time.” She was apparently unhappy in Lubbock and was preparing to move home to Fort Worth in the near future. Her friends encouraged the move as McBride’s behavior was “unpredictable.” Fisher’s mother did not like her dating McBride, and felt that her daughter saw him “too frequently.” Tidwell described McBride as having a “very explosive, short tempered” personality, and stated Fisher reacted to him with fear but tried to help him
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2000/20000510mcbrideadvy.htm
