12 infamous criminals serving time in TX, from a NASCAR champion to a pediatric nurse
There are 18 federal prisons and nine federal prison camps in Texas, and 111 more at the state level. These range from administrative-security like FMC Fort Worth to high-security federal prisons. The honor of the highest security level belongs to the United States Penitentiary (USP), Beaumont, which has housed some of the state’s most violent and dangerous criminals.
Of course, USP Beaumont isn’t the only home for infamous individuals. With such an extensive system of prisons, notable inmates can be found across the state.
Read on to learn about 12 of the more infamous criminals currently serving time in Texas.
1. Aurelio Cano Flores
Aurelio Cano Flores became a drug trafficker in 2001 while working for the Federal Judicial Police in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He used his connections to coordinate shipments of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into the U.S., becoming a high-ranking leader of the Gulf Cartel under the aliases Yankee and Yeyo.
Cano Flores was arrested in 2009 and was indicted in November 2010 along with 19 other drug traffickers of Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, collectively known as La Compañía. The defendants were charged with conspiracy to traffic over 5 kilos (11 pounds) of cocaine and over 1,000 kilos (2,204 pounds) of marijuana. Cano Flores received his sentence on May 13, 2013: spending 35 years in prison and forfeiting $15 billion. He’s currently being held at Beaumont Low Federal Correctional Institution.
2. Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal
In the early hours of January 23, 1991, Garrison police officer Constable Darrell Lunsford pulled over a suspicious car. Lunsford requested to search the trunk of the vehicle; the three men in the car, who were transporting marijuana from Texas to Illinois, got out and proceeded to beat and stab Lunsford, using his gun to fatally shoot him.
The murder was caught on the dashcam of Lunsford’s vehicle. At the time, cameras weren’t standard in police cars, but this event ushered in a new era for law enforcement. The three men were captured shortly after the murder, and prosecutors played the dashcam video at the trial. The video is also commonly used as a teaching tool so officers know how to handle these situations.
Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal, who pulled the trigger, is serving a life sentence without parole at FCI Beaumont. His half-brother, Reynaldo Sambrano Villarreal, is also at FCI Beaumont but is scheduled for release on January 21, 2026. The third man, Jesus Cortez Zambrano, was released from prison in 2018.
3. Ronald Lee Haskell
On July 9, 2014, Ronald Lee Haskell visited a Harris County home dressed as a FedEx employee. He was looking for his ex-wife, whose sister lived at the house. Initially, Haskell was greeted by 15-year-old Cassidy Stay, who told him her parents weren’t home. Haskell left but returned shortly after and tied up all five children, forcing them to lie face-down on the ground. He did the same when Cassidy’s parents came home, then reportedly shot them all “execution style.” Cassidy was the only one who survived, and her information about the murders helped the police find and apprehend Haskell.
Haskell’s ex-wife filed a domestic abuse complaint in 2008 and sought a restraining order before divorcing him in 2013. About a week before the shooting, Haskell’s mother told police she also wanted a restraining order against him. The two had a “ferocious” argument that ended with Haskell forcing his mother into a computer chair in the garage, tying her up with duct tape, and threatening her and her entire family.
A jury found Haskell guilty of capital murder in the fall of 2019. He’s on death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit near Livingston.
4. Faryion Wardrip
Faryion Wardrip is a serial killer who murdered five women, four across the Wichita Falls area and one in Fort Worth. Within 72 hours of his final murder in 1986, Wardrip called the police and confessed to killing Tina Kimbrew. Wardrip was sentenced to 35 years in prison but served only 11 years before being released on parole, wearing an ankle monitor and having his movements restricted.
In 1999, Wichita County officials reopened the murder cases. Using a DNA sample from Wardrip, the county’s District Attorney Office linked him to additional murders. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection for his first murder and three life sentences for the other three Wichita Falls killings. He’s been on death row since 1999 and is imprisoned at the Polunsky Unit in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
5. Charles Victor Thompson
In April 1999, Charles Victor Thompson was sentenced to death for murdering his girlfriend Dennise Hayslip, and her other boyfriend, Darren Cain, on April 30, 1998. Thompson has repeatedly professed his innocence, saying Hayslip died because of poor medical care after the shooting.
In 2005, Thompson escaped from Harris County Jail using a forged I.D. badge and pretending he was with the Attorney General’s office. He was found four days later in Shreveport, Louisiana, telling officers he had received food, clothing, and money by claiming to be a Hurricane Katrina evacuee.
Today, Thompson resides in solitary confinement at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. He’s a contributor to the inmate blog Between the Bars and has been featured on both the Netflix series “I Am a Killer” and the Documentary Channel show “Extreme Prison Breaks.”
6. Jeffery Lee Wood
Jeffery Lee Wood and Daniel Earl Reneau were frequent shoppers at a Texaco station in Kerrville. The duo befriended assistant manager William Bunker and cashier Kriss Lee Kieran, and together, the four men planned to stage a robbery and split the money four ways.
On January 2, 1996, Reneau and Wood drove to the Texaco station to learn that Kieran had backed out of the plan. The two left before returning later that day. Reneau entered the store and threatened Kieran at gunpoint to take money out of the store’s safe. Kieran refused, and Reneau killed him. Upon hearing the gunshot, Wood went to investigate, and Reneau turned the gun toward him to help with the robbery. They left with about $11,350 in cash and checks.
Both Reneau and Wood were sentenced to the death penalty. Reneau was executed in 2002. Wood’s death sentence is due to the Texas law of parties, which states that if a group is attempting to commit one felony and a person in the group carries out another felony, all parties are guilty of the felony that was committed. Since being convicted to death, Wood has twice had stays of execution, in 2008 and 2016. He’s still on death row in Texas but has no scheduled execution date.
7. Genene Jones
Genene Jones was a nurse at Bexar County Hospital in the pediatric intensive care unit. After a large number of children died under her care, the hospital asked its licensed vocational nurses to resign. Jones found another position in Kerrville, where investigators discovered she had poisoned six children using succinylcholine. The drug causes temporary paralysis of all skeletal muscles, including the ones that control a person’s breathing.
In 1984, she was sentenced to 99 years in prison for killing a 15-month-old. Later that year, she received an additional 60 years, with multiple indictments accusing her of “intentionally and knowingly” injuring children. Her release was set for 2018 due to an early-release law for overcrowded prisons, but new charges were filed against her to keep her in jail. She’s now serving life in prison at the Lane Murray Unit in Gatesville.
8. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez
Plenty of people have conspiracy theories or believe in haunted or mysterious things. Fewer of us act on those theories. But Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez drove more than 2,000 miles from Idaho to Washington, D.C., because he believed then-President Barack Obama was “the devil” and “the Anti-Christ.” Ortega-Hernandez often claimed he was on a “mission from God” to remove the President.
Ortega-Hernandez arrived at the White House on November 11, 2011, stopping his car in the middle of the road at the Ellipse, the park just south of the White House fence. He fired at least eight rounds at the building, drove off, and crashed his car shortly after. He eventually fled on foot but was caught a few days later.
Ortega-Hernandez pleaded guilty to one count of injury to a dwelling and placing lives in jeopardy within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, plus one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He was sentenced to 25 years, with an additional five years of supervised release.
9. Taylor Parker
In 2020, Taylor Parker, then 27, was trying to make herself look pregnant to keep her boyfriend. She faked ultrasounds and threw a gender-reveal party. Tragically, the guise turned from peculiar behavior to felony.
Parker went to the New Boston home of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons-Hancock, who had taken engagement and wedding photos of Simmons-Hancock and her husband. Parker murdered Simmons-Hancock and ripped the unborn baby from her womb. When a state trooper pulled Parker over for driving erratically, Parker claimed she had just given birth to a baby. Parker was sentenced to death in 2022 after about an hour of jury deliberation.
10. Scott Panetti
In 1992, Scott Panetti’s wife took the couple’s toddler and went to stay with her parents. Panetti came to the home and fatally shot his in-laws, then took his wife and child hostage overnight. The following morning, he turned himself in to the authorities and later defended himself during the trial.
Panetti’s case drew considerable attention and was involved in a Supreme Court ruling about convicting the mentally ill. Just last year, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman again ruled that Panetti isn’t sane enough to be executed for murdering his in-laws. Before going to prison, Panetti had 14 hospitalizations for psychotic behavior. He believed his impending execution wasn’t because he murdered two people, but rather because of a conspiracy against him to cover up a pedophile ring and to stop his preaching. Panetti remains in prison in Texas.
11. Rick Crawford
NASCAR fans might recognize the name Rick Crawford. He was a five-time winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and competed in 210 consecutive races (336 total) during a 16-year career. But his racing is greatly overshadowed by what he did in retirement.
In 2018, Crawford was arrested in Florida and charged with attempted enticement of a minor. The then-59-year-old was caught in an online undercover sting operation after trying to solicit sex from a 12-year-old in exchange for money. Crawford was speaking with an FBI sex crimes team posing as the father of the fictional pre-teen. He’s serving ten years and ten months at the Beaumont Low FCI.
12. Linda Carty
When Linda Carty was born in St. Kitts and Nevis, the islands were under British rule. Because of that, Carty is well-known in both the UK and the US. When she was in her 30s, she was convicted of auto theft and impersonating an FBI agent, subsequently serving as a drug informant for a lesser penalty. On May 16, 2001, Carty, then 42, and three others invaded the home of 20-year-old Joanna Rodriguez, kidnapping her and her newborn son.
Before the kidnapping, Carty told several people, including her ex-husband, that she was pregnant and expecting a baby despite not appearing pregnant at all. Rodriguez was found suffocated to death, though the baby was unharmed.
Carty was convicted of murder in February 2002 and sentenced to death by lethal injection. She’s maintained her innocence the entire time, claiming her co-conspirators framed her and her lawyer hired her defense in an incompetent manner. To date, all of Carty’s appeals have been denied, and she remains on death row at the Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville.
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