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The crimes committed by James Garrett Freeman will be the central focus of season 2 episode 7 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler.
James Garrett Freeman, 26, killed Justin Hurst, 34, a Texas game warden during a 90-minute car chase in 2007.
The aforementioned case on Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler is titled Too Close to Home. It will air on Oxygen on March 8, 2025, at 8 pm ET. The logline for this episode reads:
“Siegler returns to her rural roots to seek justice for a murdered game warden and his family”.
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According to Oxygen, James Garrett Freeman was arrested on the charge of fatally shooting Justin Hurst on March 17, 2007. He was given a death penalty and was executed on January 27, 2016.
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Why was James Garrett Freeman arrested?
On March 16, 2007, at about 11 pm, 50 miles southwest of Houston in Wharton County, James Garrett Freeman had been illegally hunting possums at the side of the road. A Texas game warden, Johnathan Blackburn, approached him after hearing gunshot complaints from the neighbours.
James, on seeing the game warden, fled in his pickup truck, leading the warden and other officers in a high-speed car chase of 130 miles per hour. The chase involved the wardens, sheriff officers from Wharton County, Highway Patrol, and constables.
A set of spikes was set by game warden Justin Hurst near an intersection, but James went around the trap. All the officers could do was to follow and wait. By that time the dispatchers had run the license plate number, and learned that it belonged to James. Blackburn immediately recognised him as he had written James a ticket the previous year.
The chase had finally come to an end when James drove over another set of spikes deployed by DPS troopers. Unable to handle his disabled truck, James had parked his truck with the side doors open in front of Lissie Cemetery.
According to Oxygen, a dashcam captured the chaotic scene in which James came out from his truck with a pistol and started shooting at the officers and other constables present. When officers opened fire at James, he rushed back to his pickup truck, took out an assault rifle, allegedly an AK-47, and fired back.
The Texas game warden, Justin Hurst, came out of cover to get a clear shot at James, during which James aimed his rifle towards Justin and shot him twice, incapacitating Justin. One bullet fatally injured Justin as it passed through his left arm and torso.
James was also shot four times, including one to his leg before police ultimately took him into custody.
James Garrett Freeman was sentenced to the death penalty
According to the Texas Tribune, during the punishment phase court trial, even though 40 witnesses testified on behalf of James, others testified about his loss of temper. In an anger control survey, James admitted to breaking things and doing things he could not remember the next day when he lost his temper.
According to The Attorney General Texas, on November 7, 2008, James was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death by the 329th Judicial District Court of Wharton County, Texas.
James Garrett Freeman was executed at 6 pm on January 27, 2016. He was injected with Pentobarbital. At 6:30 pm he was pronounced dead.
To learn more about this case, watch season 2 episode 7 of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler. It airs on Oxygen on March 8, 2025, at 8 pm ET.
