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The 2007 shooting of a Texas game warden left a months-old son without his father and two families wondering why it happened, as featured in Season 2, Episode 7 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.
James Garrett Freeman, then 35, opened fire on seven members of law enforcement following a failure to stop and a high-speed pursuit in Wharton County, Texas. The shootout left Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Game Warden Justin Hurst shot in a roadside ditch, with Hurst succumbing to his injuries just 20 minutes into this 34th birthday.
The case became personal for veteran prosecutor Kelly Siegler since the Wharton County area in which the shooting occurred was “like home,” she said.
A wild Texas shootout caught on tape in 2007
On March 16, 2007, at about 11:00 p.m., Hurst and fellow Game Warden and friend Scott Blackburn patrolled the backroads of Wharton County in separate vehicles. With approximately 550 game wardens in the state, each tasked with overseeing areas high in hunting and fishing traffic, only two worked within that county.
That night, Hurst agreed to take the Garwood area, and Blackburn agreed to patrol Bernard Prairie, where there’d been reports of nighttime shootings at traffic signs — something not terribly uncommon in rural Texas, but illegal all the same.
“Our job’s a little bit different than most law enforcement,” said Blackburn. “Most of the people we deal with don’t break the law. The flip side of that, though, is during hunting season, everybody we check has a gun.”
During most shifts, Blackburn could go hours without ever seeing a vehicle. But on March 16, while parked without his lights turned on, he spotted a pickup truck driver “driving extremely slow” in his direction, shooting something in the night. Blackburn expected the driver to stop once seeing Blackburn, but instead, the driver “slowly drove past.”
Blackburn expected little more than a ticket writeup until the suspect drove onto Highway 90 and initiated a high-speed pursuit at over 100 miles per hour. It prompted county officials and state troopers to join the chase, all of which was video recorded by multiple dashcams and published by Prosecuting Evil.
The truck linked to local man James Freeman — who often went by his middle name — and charges against him mounted as he evaded authorities. The pursuit traced the backroads with which Freeman was familiar, and with about half a dozen cars on Freeman’s tail, Hurst decided to block the road with his work vehicle.
Freeman bypassed several spike strips placed on his path, and when he bumped his vehicle against Hurst’s, it became an assault against an officer.
Still, the hour-long chase continued until a final spike strip on the road stopped Freeman, who then proceeded to angle his truck in the road, exit the cab, and open fire on authorities.
Freeman stood in a military stance and first used a Glock .357 SIG pistol to aim at officers with rapid fire. He then went back into his cab and emerged with a high-powered AK-47 rifle, sweeping from behind the truck’s bed and, at one point, crouching down and exchanging fire with Hurst, who was then hunkered in a ditch.
After shooting Hurst, Freeman attempted to run to a nearby tree line until Captain Roddy Rodriguez of the Wharton County Sheriff’s Office shot the suspect as he tried to flee.
“At that point, I’m thinking, ‘If he gets in that tree line with that rifle, we’re in trouble,’” Rodriguez recalled.
Attempts to save Hurst were caught on camera, leaving Blackburn unable to contain his tears when speaking to Prosecuting Evil
“I wanted to make sure he was O.K.,” said Blackburn. “And when I got to him, I knew he wasn’t.”
Hurst was Life-Flighted to a Houston hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
Who was Justin Hurst?
Justin Hurst was a beloved family man described by his parents, Pat and Allen Hurst, as an outdoorsy child who went on to graduate from Texas A&M University before following his passion for nature at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. There, he fell in love with a summer intern, Amanda, who became his wife after three years of dating in the spring of 2001.
“Very easygoing, very lighthearted,” Amanda Hurst said when describing her late husband. “But the first time he made me homemade chicken-fried steak with homemade biscuits, I knew I’d hit the jackpot.”
Amanda and Justin Hurst welcomed a son, Kyle, in November 2006, just a few months before the shooting.
According to his parents, Justin Hurst worked in management before being accepted into the game warden academy, an honor that introduced the young father to Blackburn for the very first time.
“He taught us waterfowl identification as a cadet,” Blackburn tearfully told Prosecuting Evil. “He was so excited about being a dad, and he never got the chance.”
Texas Rangers investigate Freeman’s motives
Since the shooting involved multiple law enforcement agencies, David Maxwell came on behalf of the Texas Rangers to investigate, arriving after daybreak. The deadly event left patrol cars riddled with bullet holes and glass shattered along the road.
Inside Freeman’s truck, there were additional firearms to the ones he used against members of law enforcement.
Maxwell visited Freeman in the hospital, and though the suspect sustained four gunshot wounds and underwent surgery, he was coherent and “surprisingly good,” given his condition. Freeman had no history of violence and said he’d only gone out that evening to do a little night-hunting with his .22-caliber rifle to shoot opossum, per his audio-recorded interview with Maxwell.
Freeman couldn’t explain why he decided to go on the run.
“I don’t know why the hell I did it,” Freeman told Maxwell. “I can kind of remember what my thought was … ‘What the hell are you doing? You’re gonna get shot; you’re not gonna just run away from it.’”
Authorities recognized Freeman’s shooting abilities appeared expert, but Freeman said he only enjoyed shooting at home, citing it as “one of [his] favorite things to do.” He said he felt “terrible” about killing Justin Hurst.
Ultimately, Freeman was charged with capital murder.
“This case is different because you have a defendant who, I found out later, wasn’t a bad person like a lot of capital murder defendants,” Siegler said. “He didn’t live a life of crime, but one night in his life, one night of God-knows-what-was-going-on in his head, and a whole world was changed just by stupid decisions, and there are consequences for every one of those decisions.”
Kelly Siegler’s connection to the Justin Hurst case
Siegler had a personal connection with Wharton County, the home of her mother. Raised in Blessing in neighboring Matagorda County, Siegler said she spent her summers there with cousins and relatives and thought of the area like her second home.
After losing the race for Harris County District Attorney in 2007, Siegler accepted an invitation to serve on the trial as a special prosecutor alongside Wharton County District Attorney Joshua McCown. Right off the bat, she learned about the victim.
“He grew up wanting to be a biologist ’cause he loved nature and animals and the water and all that,” said Siegler. “And then the rest of his life story with Amanda and his son and his parents and everything about him … you couldn’t find a more righteous victim in law enforcement than Justin Hurst.”
Prosecuting Evil followed Siegler when she met with Hurst’s parents, widow, and son, the latter of whom had grown up. Discussing the case, Justin Hurst’s loved ones said that, in the past, they were willing to see a plea deal in which Freeman could receive life without the possibility of parole instead of death.
According to Siegler, Freeman was offered a plea deal, but it was rejected. And, still, no one could understand why Freeman — born and raised in Wharton County with a passion for hunting and fishing — engaged in the shootout to begin with.
“I know lots of boys that go night-hunting, and they have guns, and they’re drinking beer, and things could go crazy; that’s what I thought: ‘He must have been really drunk, right?’” Siegler told Prosecuting Evil. “But Freeman wasn’t, so that part never made any sense.”
The trial of James Freeman begins
Opening statements began on October 20, 2008, and Siegler and other prosecutors argued that Freeman loaded his weapons while driving, proving that he intended to kill. They also pointed to his military-style stance and the angle at which he stopped his vehicle, which showed he planned to shoot those in the line of duty.
Freeman’s defense, however, challenged prosecutors by claiming Freeman intended to die as part of a “suicide by cop.”
Prosecutors wanted Freeman’s taped confession away from the jury in favor of cross-examining him on the stand. However, jurors watched the video that captured the entire ordeal from different angles, as detailed by legal analyst and appellate defense attorney Patrick McCann.
“The video is shocking and violent,” McCann told Prosecuting Evil. “Frankly, it was an up-close-and-personal and well-documented view of what it’s like to be in a firefight.”
Becca Ivey of the Wharton County District Attorney’s Office noted the victim’s heroism.
“Justin was drawing Freeman’s fire so the other officers could move out, and they could then fire on Freeman,” said Ivey. “Had he not done that, the loss of life would have been tremendous.”
Texas Ranger Maxwell testified that Freeman’s familiarity with the gun appeared “very experienced” and “very practiced.”
“My theory is that he kind of fanaticized about being in a situation like this,” Maxwell told Prosecuting Evil. “Why did he do it that night? Nobody knows.”
Assessing the defense that Freeman wanted a “suicide by cop” death, psychological experts examined the defendant. However, they found no indication that he lived with any major depression in the past.
Prosecutors said as much when acknowledging the strategic moves Freeman took to protect himself during the shooting, including crouching down, taking cover in the truck’s cab, and angling the vehicle in such a way to protect himself from oncoming gunfire.
Siegler had a different explanation: Freeman simply didn’t want to go to prison.
“If that’s not capital murder, then what the hell is?” Siegler wondered aloud.
Was James Freeman convicted?
Jurors deliberated for about four hours before finding James Freeman guilty of murder. Although there was little question over whether Freeman carried out the shooting, Siegler knew “the biggest battle” would come during the punishment phase of the trial, when jurors would weigh the death penalty against life without the possibility of parole.
The defense hoped a record clean of crime could spare their defendant from execution, but others said that was the very reason jurors should sentence Freeman to death.
“He’s a continuing threat to society because no one who knew him his entire life could have predicted what he did that day,” Maxwell told Prosecuting Evil. “That means nobody could say with any certainty that he wouldn’t do this again.”
Jurors deliberated and came to a decision overnight: Freeman would be sentenced to death.
Looking back with Siegler, widow Amanda Hurst recalled hugging Freeman’s parents at sentencing with the notion that they, too, were losing someone they loved.
“No mom should ever have to go through that,” said Amanda Hurst. “Our community loved on us and held us at high esteem at all times, and I can’t imagine being on the other side of that … they [Freeman’s parents] were just normal people like us.”
The Hursts’ son, Kyle, recalled growing up without his dad and credited his mother for filling both roles.
“To have that actual father figure take you hunting and fishing, teach you how to tie ropes and fishing line, it’s not there for me,” Kyle Hurst told Siegler. “But, she’s been here my whole life, helping me through all of it. She does her hardest.”
James Garrett Freeman was executed on January 27, 2016.
Don’t miss all-new episodes of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
