An Austin man who was committed to a state hospital after being found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity in the 2013 stabbing death of his father has fled the facility, according to authorities.
Shortly after 7:30 a.m. on Monday, hospital personnel reported to police that 29-year-old Alexander Scott Ervin was missing from the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, according to the Vernon Police Department.
The facility is 190 miles northwest of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border.
Vernon Police Department (VPD), sheriff’s deputies, and state troopers began searching for the man and examining the hospital’s security camera footage.
Videos showed Ervin leaving his dormitory on Sunday around 9 p.m. He climbed the hospital’s 8-foot security fence and fled on foot, going north at around 9:15 p.m.
Ervin is described as 5-feet-8-inches tall, approximately 206 pounds, and bald with a mustache. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, tan pants, a gray zip-up hoodie, and black shoes.
VPD advises individuals who see Ervin not to approach him and call 911. He is considered armed and dangerous.
In 2014, a Travis County jury ruled Ervin not guilty of murder due to insanity in the killing of his father, 58-year-old Ray Scott Ervin.
The night Ervin fatally stabbed his father, he was allegedly experiencing a psychotic episode with delusions and paranoia, according to his defense attorneys.
His brother, Maxwell Ervin, testified that Alexander attacked their father with a pipe wrench and a folding knife, claiming that Ray was an imposter and that Alexander thought himself to be a trained CIA agent out to kill him.
Alexander claimed while on the stand that the assault was self-defense and that he did not recall saying his father was an imposter.
