Left Five Children

Kaufman County district attorney and wife found shot to death in home

Kaufman County district attorney Mike McLelland is the second official to bemurdered.
Photo courtesy of Kaufman County
Assistant DA Mark Hasse was slain outside the Kaufman County Courthouse inJanuary.
texasancestors.com

Another Kaufman County law enforcement individual was murdered brutally. District attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, were found shot to death in their home on Saturday.

Kaufman County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Justin Lewis confirmed to Fox that the couple was found dead. Their shooting follows the January 31 murder of assistant district attorney Mark Hasse outside the Kaufman County Courthouse. Hasse, a prosecutor, worked for McLellan; no arrests have been made. Kaufman County Crimestoppers has a $100,000 reward for information leading to his killers.

According to the Kaufman Herald, the sheriff's office and Texas Rangers were seeking similarities to Hasse's murder. The Herald also reported that the FBI was comparing Hasse's shooting to that of Tom Clements, the executive director of Colorado prisons who was shot and killed at his home on March 19. The gun used to kill Clements was used in a shoot-out in Decatur, Texas, by Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, a member of a white supremacist gang who was killed by Texas deputies on March 21.

Kaufman County was one of a battalion of agencies that worked on a major bust of 34 members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, who were indicted on federal racketeering charges in October 2012. In December, Texas officials issued a bulletin warning that the Aryan Brotherhood was "actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials" involved in prosecuting the case.

Neighbors told the Dallas Morning News that they heard loud noises from the McLellands' house on Friday; the front door had been kicked in. WFAA reported that McLellan's body was found in a hallway, perhaps trying to escape, while Cynthia was found in a front room in their house.

McLellan, who was 63, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and served 23 years in the army, with a stint at Desert Storm. Prior to his 2010 election as DA, he practiced law for 18 years as a criminal defense attorney, mental health judge, and special prosecutor for Family and Protective Services. Cynthia, 65, worked as a psychiatric nurse at Terrell State Hospital. They had five children, two daughters and three sons, one a Dallas police officer.

Anyone with information on the murder of the McLellands or Mark Hasse can contact Crimestoppers at 1-877-TIPSKCC (847-7522).

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E-Cigarette News

Dallas City Council places restrictions on vaping in public

Unsplash

Man vaping

Vaping will now be banned exactly like smoking, thanks to a new ordinance from the Dallas City Council.

At their December 11 meeting, the council passed an ordinance to ban vaping in all the same areas where smoking is not allowed. It'll go into effect on December 11, 2025 — giving everyone a year to get into compliance.

Proposed by City of Dallas Environmental Commission (EVC) and the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability (OEQS), the ordinance amends the definition of “smoking” in the Dallas City Code to include the use of vaping devices.

The ordinance does not ban vaping — it only bans where you can vape: no vaping in all indoor and enclosed spaces; within 15 feet of building entrances; and on park property. The ordinance also bans marijuana smoking in those same places.

In addition, the amendment requires restaurants, hotels, fitness centers and other businesses to update their signage to clearly state that both smoking and electronic smoking devices are prohibited.

The ordinance already earned widespread support from health organizations such as the Dallas County Health and Human Services, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association. These organizations, along with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Surgeon General, have all raised concerns about the health risks of direct and second-hand exposure to vaping aerosols, particularly for vulnerable populations such as children and older adults.

Dallas is not the first city to impose such a ban: San Antonio enacted a similar ban in October. Theirs goes into effect on January 1, 2025.

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