Crime Time

Escaped prisoners from Tennessee captured in Denton

Two escaped prisoners from Tennessee were captured in Denton, one of which was convicted of murder.

Jessie Lobbins and Joshua Caldwell were taken into custody about 9 p.m. Friday by U.S. Marshals and officers with the Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force.

Denton Police Captain Lenn Carter, investigative services bureau, said the pair escaped Nov. 30 from Tennessee’s Robertson County Jail by gaining access to the roof and jumping over a razor wire fence.

Carter said after officers received information that the pair were in the Denton Area, task force members chased down leads and located the escapees inside of a house in the 200 block of Fry Street, near the University of North Texas campus.  

Carter said Lobbins is a known gang member facing a life-sentence in prison and was convicted in a Nashville Federal Court in August of murder, carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and tampering with a witness, victim or informant.

Caldwell was in Federal pre-trial detention for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and methamphetamine, Carter said.

Both men were being held Saturday in a Denton jail awaiting transport to Tennessee.

Carter said the investigation is ongoing concerning any harboring charges for the acquaintances who live in Denton.

-Susan McFarland

 

Testimony: Killer did nude painting of deputy warden's wife

A deputy warden's wife found living at a Texas chicken farm with an escaped killer is now on trial in Oklahoma on charges that she aided in the escape. Defense lawyers say she was kidnapped and forced to live with the man for more than 10 years. But at her trial Tuesday, a prison worker testified that he saw a nude painting of her, apparently by convicted killer Randolph Parker Dial, among other paintings by him found in the garage of her home after the escape, The Oklahomam reported   

Inmate goes on post-escape crime spree wearing hospital gown, flip-flops

It seems that alleged bank robber Anthony Koehlhoeffer would have been easy to spot after police said he escaped custody from an Iowa City, Iowa, hospital -- all he was wearing was a hospital gown and flip-flops.

He'd been taken there for court-ordered treatment.

But, police said, his lack of proper attire didn't stop the fleeing man from committing a post-escape crime spree in 10-degree snowy weather that included assault and carjackings, the Associated Press reported.

After eluding police for hours, Koehlhoeffer reportedly crashed one of the vehicles he allegedly carjacked in Bettendorf, Iowa, about 55 miles from where the whole thing started and was in custody again in another hospital, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Ranger's suspicions lead to capture of Arizona prison escapee

The remaining escapee from an Arizona prison was arrested along with his fiance at a campsite 300 miles east of the prison.

It ended a manhunt that had literally spanned the country.

John McCluskey had escaped with two other prisoners on July 30 from the private prison and had eluded authorities in six states before being caught, the Associated Press reported.

McCluskey, 45, and Casslyn Welch, 44, were caught at a campsite in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona after a suspicious forest ranger found an unattended campsite and a Nissan backed suspiciously into the woods.  The ranger actually had a brief conversation with McCluskey and then reported his discovery.

A SWAT team moved in for the capture, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Escapee, female accomplice, sighted near Glacier National Park

With two Arizona prison escapees now back in custody, authorities are focusing on the third fugitive and his alleged female accomplice who have apparently made their way to an area near Glacier National National Park in Montana.

Tracy Province was captured Monday in Wyoming after a woman in a church recognized him from television news broadcasts.

Now, authorities are zeroing in on John McCluskey, 45, and Cassly Welch, 44, after U.S. Marshals received tips that they pair were sighted east of Glacier National Park near the Canadian border, the Associated Press reported.

McCluskey, Province and a third prisoner, Daniel Renwick, escaped from a privately run prison in Arizona on July 30. Renwick was later captured in Colorado, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Escaped convicts believed to be in Yellowstone National Park

Authorities have turned their search for two escaped convicts and their alleged accomplice to Yellowstone National Park, the Associated Press reported.

The pair escaped last week from a private prison in Arizona and one of them has been linked to a double homicide in New Mexico.

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service said that they don't believe any of the suspects are expert campers or have any wilderness survival training, the AP reported.

-- Lance Murray

Foiled: Prison escape plot used Sudoku, hidden codes

Prison officials in England have foiled a prison escape plot that used secret codes hidden in Sudoku puzzles and would have had a convicted murderer whisked away in a helicopter.

Brian Lawrence, in prison for killing a man and hiring hit men to kill two others in 2003, was hatching the plot, officials said.

They noticed the words "more heat, less light," in one of his letters to would-be accomplices and then discovered invisible messages by heating the paper, the New York Daily News reported.

-- Lance Murray

Escapee who taunted cops on Facebook is captured

After escaping from prison, British convict Craig "Lazie" Lynch reportedly spent much of his time taunting police on Facebook, building a base of as many as 40,000 fans on it and other Web sites, Scotland Yard said.

His taunting days are over, though.

Scotland Yard announced that officers arrested "Lazie" Tuesday night in southern England.

His notoriety spawned T-shirts and even a tribute song, the Associated Press reported.

-- Lance Murray

Escaped insane killer captured after 3 days on the run

He's back.

Authorities in Washington state have recaptured an escape insane killer who slipped away during a field trip to a county fair.

Phillip Arnold Paul, 45, was captured three days after his escape more than 180 miles away from where he disappeared, police said.

He was committed to a mental institution after being ruled insane in the killing of an elderly woman and dousing her body in gasoline. He had duped a friend into helping him get out of town after his escape.

-- Lance Murray

Insane murderer escapes during field trip to county fair

This sounds like the plot of a B-terror film, but the people of Spokane, Wash., are experiencing it for real.

Authorities say that an insane killer committed to a mental hospital has escaped while on a field to a county fair. Apparently the hospital didn't notify authorities for an hour that Phillip Arnold Paul, 57, had slipped away.

What was Paul's crime? He slashed the throat of an elderly woman in 1987, poured gasoline on her body to throw off search dogs and then buried her remains in her flower garden.

Paul was diagnosed as schizophrenic and was determined to be criminally insane.

-- Lance Murray