Post by "BIGTYME" on Aug 11, 2005 0:42:07 GMT -5
Jennifer Hyatte Shot Corrections Worker to Spring Husband from Prison
By NICK JULIANO, AP
AP
Police say Jennifer Hyatte killed a corrections officer to help her husband George escape.
KINGSTON, Tenn. (Aug. 11) - A fugitive inmate and his wife, wanted in a brazen courthouse escape and shooting in Tennessee, were captured Wednesday night at an Ohio motel after a tip from a cab driver who had dropped them off, authorities said.
George Hyatte and Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte were in a room at an America's Best Value Inn in Columbus and were arrested without a struggle, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
"We have found weapons," he said. "We don't know if it's the murder weapon, but we're processing those as we speak."
Tuesday, authorities say Jennifer Hyatte, 31, ambushed two guards as they were leading her 34-year-old husband from a courthouse hearing in Kingston, Tenn., about 300 miles south of Columbus. Guard Wayne "Cotton" Morgan was fatally shot in the escape.
Jennifer Hyatte had some injuries, Gwyn said, but he declined to elaborate.
He said the couple would be brought back to Tennessee on warrants for first degree murder.
Authorities had already tracked the Hyattes to the Cincinnati area when they got a tip around 9 p.m. that the couple was at the Columbus motel. A cab driver who had apparently driven them from Columbus from Erlanger, Ky., just south of Cincinnati, called Erlanger police, U.S. Marshal John Schickel said.
He declined to give any additional information or identify the cab driver.
After the tip, authorities surrounded the Columbus motel, said John Bolen, a supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus.
Authorities called the motel room where the couple was staying, told them they were surrounded, and the couple came out of their room and surrendered around 10 p.m., Bolen said. They didn't say anything during the arrest, he said.
Jennifer Hyatte came out of the second-floor room with her hands up, said motel guest Robin Penn, who was watching from her first-floor window across the parking lot.
The woman was limping but followed officers' instructions to walk down the balcony to a stairwell and get on her knees, where she was handcuffed, Penn said. She said the man came out next, with his shirt pulled over his head. He walked backward toward the stairwell, then got on his knees and authorities handcuffed him, Penn said.
There were at least 25 officers on the motel balcony and in the parking lot, she said.
Earlier in the day, authorities had tracked down a van the couple was believed to have used outside a motel in Erlanger. The couple was gone, but authorities knew then that they were getting close.
Blood had been found in the motel room, and an employee at a nearby restaurant told federal agents she had given directions that day to a couple she later recognized as the fugitives.
Jennifer Hyatte had been a prison nurse when she met her husband, and was fired last year for sneaking food to him. A few months later, she got permission from the warden to marry George Hyatte, a man with a long and violent criminal record. She had no prior run-ins with the law.
"You are left grappling for answers and trying to figure it out. What was she thinking?" Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said earlier Wednesday.
"I guess it is anyone's guess," Johnson said. "She married the guy, so you have to assume there is some sort of love connection."
Before the escape, George Hyatte had been in court on a robbery charge.
His escape was at least the fifth time has gotten way from law enforcement officials. The other escapes were from local authorities in east Tennessee in 1990, 1991, 1998 and 2002.
Hyatte's record includes charges for burglary, theft, armed robbery and striking an officer. He was acquitted of aggravated rape. A presentencing report from 1993, when Hyatte was 21, described him as a repeat offender with little work history and "a tendency toward violence."
8/11/2005 00:31:33
By NICK JULIANO, AP
AP
Police say Jennifer Hyatte killed a corrections officer to help her husband George escape.
KINGSTON, Tenn. (Aug. 11) - A fugitive inmate and his wife, wanted in a brazen courthouse escape and shooting in Tennessee, were captured Wednesday night at an Ohio motel after a tip from a cab driver who had dropped them off, authorities said.
George Hyatte and Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte were in a room at an America's Best Value Inn in Columbus and were arrested without a struggle, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
"We have found weapons," he said. "We don't know if it's the murder weapon, but we're processing those as we speak."
Tuesday, authorities say Jennifer Hyatte, 31, ambushed two guards as they were leading her 34-year-old husband from a courthouse hearing in Kingston, Tenn., about 300 miles south of Columbus. Guard Wayne "Cotton" Morgan was fatally shot in the escape.
Jennifer Hyatte had some injuries, Gwyn said, but he declined to elaborate.
He said the couple would be brought back to Tennessee on warrants for first degree murder.
Authorities had already tracked the Hyattes to the Cincinnati area when they got a tip around 9 p.m. that the couple was at the Columbus motel. A cab driver who had apparently driven them from Columbus from Erlanger, Ky., just south of Cincinnati, called Erlanger police, U.S. Marshal John Schickel said.
He declined to give any additional information or identify the cab driver.
After the tip, authorities surrounded the Columbus motel, said John Bolen, a supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus.
Authorities called the motel room where the couple was staying, told them they were surrounded, and the couple came out of their room and surrendered around 10 p.m., Bolen said. They didn't say anything during the arrest, he said.
Jennifer Hyatte came out of the second-floor room with her hands up, said motel guest Robin Penn, who was watching from her first-floor window across the parking lot.
The woman was limping but followed officers' instructions to walk down the balcony to a stairwell and get on her knees, where she was handcuffed, Penn said. She said the man came out next, with his shirt pulled over his head. He walked backward toward the stairwell, then got on his knees and authorities handcuffed him, Penn said.
There were at least 25 officers on the motel balcony and in the parking lot, she said.
Earlier in the day, authorities had tracked down a van the couple was believed to have used outside a motel in Erlanger. The couple was gone, but authorities knew then that they were getting close.
Blood had been found in the motel room, and an employee at a nearby restaurant told federal agents she had given directions that day to a couple she later recognized as the fugitives.
Jennifer Hyatte had been a prison nurse when she met her husband, and was fired last year for sneaking food to him. A few months later, she got permission from the warden to marry George Hyatte, a man with a long and violent criminal record. She had no prior run-ins with the law.
"You are left grappling for answers and trying to figure it out. What was she thinking?" Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson said earlier Wednesday.
"I guess it is anyone's guess," Johnson said. "She married the guy, so you have to assume there is some sort of love connection."
Before the escape, George Hyatte had been in court on a robbery charge.
His escape was at least the fifth time has gotten way from law enforcement officials. The other escapes were from local authorities in east Tennessee in 1990, 1991, 1998 and 2002.
Hyatte's record includes charges for burglary, theft, armed robbery and striking an officer. He was acquitted of aggravated rape. A presentencing report from 1993, when Hyatte was 21, described him as a repeat offender with little work history and "a tendency toward violence."
8/11/2005 00:31:33
