Prison escape
Huntsville prison guard killed as two men escape
One suspect caught, the other at large.

By MIKE WARD
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, September 24, 2007

A correctional officer at a Huntsville prison was fatally injured today after two convicts overpowered her while on a field work squad, running her down with a vehicle that they then used to escape.

It was the first death of a Texas correctional officer in the line of duty in three years, officials said.

Authorities said preliminary information indicated the attack occurred shortly after 10 a.m. at the Wynne Unit, at Huntsville's northern edge, when the two inmates � both serving time for murder or attempted murder � while working on a so-called hoe squad in an agricultural field along Interstate 45 near the prison.

They took her weapons and stole a Huntsville city truck that was nearby, officials said.

The convicts � identified by The Associated Press as Jerry Martin and John Ray Falk � then escaped in the pickup, striking the officer as they fled, according to initial reports.

The officer died at the scene, officials said. Her name was not immediately disclosed.

By 1 p.m., Falk was back in custody. Martin was still at large, and law enforcement teams extended a dragnet around Huntsville.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said the vehicle was been abandoned and recovered about a mile or two south in Huntsville along Interstate 45.

Martin, 37, was serving 50 years since being convicted in 1997 for two counts of attempted capital murder out of Collin County, near Dallas.

[This message was edited by JB on 09-24-07 at .]

So you can get convicted of two counts of Attempted Capital Murder and still be allowed to work in the field? Wonder what Sorenson, Cunningham and those other "future dangerousness" actuarial gurus have to say about this?

Well, Sorenson wouldn't even include this guy in his sample . . .

He would seem to be eligible for the death penalty now. TPC sec 19.03(a)(4)!

JAS

[This message was edited by JAS on 09-24-07 at .]

Good luck arguing he wouldn't be dangerous in prison!

Someone will argue that LWOP is enough to protect us all. And someone else will argue that the nondriver should not be eligible for the DP.

Officer dead as two inmates escape Texas prison
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Texas � Two inmates working in prison field overpowered a guard Monday and ran her over in a stolen pickup truck, killing the woman, prison officials said.

The inmates, in prison for murder and attempted capital murder, were both recaptured. One was apprehended within an hour. The second was caught hiding in a tree about two hours later, after a manhunt that included a police helicopter, Stetson-hatted lawmen on horseback and bloodhounds.

Jerry Martin, 37, had been imprisoned since 1997 and was serving a 50-year sentence for attempted murder, was found in the tree after dogs picked up his scent, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.

"He will be facing felony escape charges at the very least" Lyons said. She said Martin did not appear to be hurt.

Martin and John Ray Falk, serving a life sentence since 1986 for a Matagorda County murder, were working outside the Wynne Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice just north of Huntsville on Monday morning.

They overpowered the officer about 10:30 a.m. in the field along Interstate 45, took her weapons and stole a Huntsville city truck that was nearby, department spokesman Jason Clark said. At least one shotgun the officer was carrying had not been accounted for, Lyons said.

"They ran over the officer," Clark said. "We can confirm she did die."

The guard was identified as Susan Canfield, 59, had been a corrections officer for seven years, Lyons said. A hometown wasn't immediately available.

Lyons said that after the inmates took the truck, they at some point stole another vehicle and ditched it, too.

Martin was captured in a wooded area along I-45 about a mile or two south of where the officer was killed. The search for him included numerous state and local law enforcement agencies.

Based on his good disciplinary record in prison, Martin was classified as a minimum security inmate and assigned to do field work outside the prison under the supervision of officers.

"In this case, obviously, something went wrong," Lyons said.

The Wynne Unit, established in 1883, is one of the oldest in the Texas prison system. It holds about 2,600 inmates of various custody levels. The unit is about 80 miles north of Houston and shares about 1,500 acres with two other prisons that straddle the main freeway between Houston and Dallas.

Looks like State's Exhibit 1.

Officials: Escapee from Collin County attempts suicide 11:45 AM CT
11:45 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 26, 2007

From Staff and Wire Reports

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - One of the two inmates involved in the brief escape this week that left a Texas corrections officer dead tried to kill himself Wednesday morning, state prison officials said.

Jerry Martin tried to hang himself in his cell at the Estelle Unit outside Huntsville at around 5:25 a.m., said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons. The 37-year-old Celina man used boxer shorts he attached to a light fixture in his cell.

Martin was quickly found by officers who had been checking on him frequently, Lyons said. He was in stable condition at a Huntsville hospital.

Martin was set to be transported to an undetermined TDCJ unit once he is discharged from the hospital.

Huntsville workers' mistake allowed escapees to get truck
City says 2 employees left keys in ignition

By TERRI LANGFORD and MARK BABINECK
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Scenes from the manhunt and capture
If there's one city in Texas where every motorist should keep their car keys out of their parked automobiles, it would be Huntsville, where nearly 14,000 state prison inmates live.

Yet on Monday, an unattended city truck with keys left in the ignition became the inadvertent getaway vehicle for two prison escapees who used the truck to throw a correctional officer off her horse, killing her in the fall, and remain at large for several hours.

As Texas Rangers and prison officials investigate how inmates Jerry Duane Martin, 37, and John Ray Falk, 40, broke free from a Wynne Unit prison farm crew, one Huntsville city official said Wednesday that officials are trying to determine why city policy was violated by two street sign workers.

The two workers were picking up street sign materials at a municipal building adjacent to the prison and left the keys in the truck's ignition.

"The policy is not to leave the keys in the car," said Kevin Evans, Huntsville's city manager. Evans would not say if the employees will be disciplined.

I'm probably way underqualified, when compared to all of the lettered experts out there who know everything about the Texas penitentiary, and command a hefty fee for knowing what they do (or don't). But I submit this bit of information, current as of this hour:

So far this year, (as of 10-2-07 at 11:25am)there have been two (2) homicides in, or involving the Tx prison system. Both victims were females. Both cases involved convicted murderers killing the victims. Of the two convicted murderers who killed the victims, one did so in a general population cell (not a "special place" for murderers, which doesn't exist by the way). The other convicted murderer, as we know, killed his victim outside the fences, outside the actuarial scales, outside the risk assessments, outside the safety of academia's ivory palaces.

Exit only