Posted on 08/23/2005 6:18:19 PM PDT by SmithL
KINGSTON - Captured fugitives George and Jennifer Hyatte returned to appear before a judge Monday on first-degree murder charges at the same courthouse where their belated honeymoon began in bloodshed 13 days earlier.
The Hyattes wore identical white outfits, and each remained silent in separate hearings as Roane County Sessions Court Judge Thomas A. Austin read them the charges they face, advised them of their rights and appointed their lawyers.
"We are very relieved to get this put out of the way," said Kingston Police Chief Jim Washam, whose agency is leading the investigation into the murder of state correction officer Wayne "Cotton" Morgan.
Authorities say Jennifer Hyatte, 31, shot Morgan to free her 34-year-old husband after he had appeared in a Roane County courtroom Aug. 9 on a burglary charge. Morgan, 56, died an hour after the midmorning gunfight. Jennifer Hyatte was wounded.
The Hyattes fled Tennessee and became the focus of a nationwide manhunt.
Jennifer Hyatte, a former prison nurse and mother of three, married George Hyatte, a career criminal described as a smooth-talking ladies man, in a prison ceremony in May. Their first night on the run was the only night they've spent together as husband and wife.
After a cab driver who was suspicious told police he gave the Hyattes a ride, authorities in Ohio captured them without incident in a Columbus motel. An Ohio judge ordered their extradition to Tennessee on Friday.
Security at the Roane County Courthouse was tight Monday, with cars banned from the freshly paved parking lot and dozens of heavily armed officers posted around the courthouse and jail.
A couple of onlookers heckled the Hyattes when they arrived shortly before 2 p.m., calling them "dogs" and heaping praise on law enforcement officers who took them into the jail for booking prior to the court appearance.
The U.S. Marshals Service flew the Hyattes from Ohio to Tennessee but wouldn't say where they landed or give any other details of the transfer. U.S. Marshal A. Jeffrey Hedden said both rode in the small plane, but he wasn't sure whether the two were allowed to speak to one another.
The plane, Hedden said, "was large enough that they weren't playing footsie."
Escorted by a Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicle, a motorcade consisting of a sedan, a van and a sport utility vehicle - all unmarked - arrived at the jail from the east on Highway 70 about 1:48 p.m.
Officers wielding shotguns and assault rifles blocked traffic and kept a close eye on some two-dozen spectators who had gathered in the sweltering heat at an apartment building across the street from the jail.
"Dirty dogs!" yelled one bystander, 61-year-old Sandra Brackett, as officers hustled Jennifer Hyatte from the unmarked car into the Roane County jail for booking.
Three minutes later, officers extracted George Hyatte from the van.
"There he goes," Brackett yelled. "Sorry dog! Sorry dog!"
After being booked, photographed and fingerprinted, the Hyattes changed into white Tennessee prison outfits for their court appearances. They wore shackles on their ankles and chains around their waists. In addition to wrist restraints, the pair wore special mittens - basically synthetic tubes without thumbs or fingers - that prevented them from holding objects like keys or weapons.
"It's kind of like putting boxing gloves on," Roane County Sheriff David Haggard later explained. "You can't grab a thing."
Washam said the Hyattes didn't speak during their booking inside the jail.
"They didn't show any emotion," he said.
In back-to-back arraignments, each defendant remained silent as Austin told them the state of Tennessee would try them for Morgan's murder and would keep them behind bars without bond until their trial.
George Hyatte, whose five-minute hearing was first, approached the bench flanked by burly plainclothes officers from the Tennessee Department of Correction. His face remained expressionless as Austin read from the arrest warrant, set a preliminary hearing for Aug. 31 and appointed Chattanooga attorney Cynthia Schemel to defend him.
"You may take him back," Austin said to the guards when he was finished.
After putting George Hyatte in a TDOC vehicle, officers led Jennifer Hyatte to the courtroom.
Still gimpy from the gunshot wound she sustained during the courthouse shootout, Jennifer Hyatte approached the bench alone. Her hazel eyes darted around the courtroom, which was filled with reporters, news photographers and courthouse workers. As a security precaution, the general public wasn't allowed into the courthouse once the Hyattes arrived.
Jennifer Hyatte nodded as Austin read from her arrest warrant and told her that Knoxville lawyer John Eldridge would defend her. She, too, will have a preliminary hearing on Aug. 31.
Moments later, prison officials put her in a TDOC van parked directly behind the one containing her husband. The motorcade left town, taking the couple to separate prisons in Nashville - George Hyatte to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution and Jennifer Hyatte to the Tennessee Prison for Women.
Tennessee Department of Correction officers lead George Hyatte, above, and his wife, Jennifer Hyatte, below, to their appearance in court in Roane County on Monday. In addition to shackles on their ankles and chains around their waist, the pair wears special fingerless, synthetic tubes preventing them from holding objects such as keys or weapons.
Does Tennessee have the death penalty?
How cute, that they were able to wear matching outfits. Too bad they don't get to be in the same prison for the rest of their lives.
So, based on the way the judge handled all this, are they going to be tried separately?
Give them a fair trial and a quick hanging.
Yes we do, but you are likely to die of old age, even for a law enforcement officer's death.
The mitts are a nice touch. Too bad they didn't have and use them in Atlanta a couple of months ago for Brian Nichols--he was a much more dangerous prisoner than these murdering sneaks.
This couple could have significantly lowered their chance of getting caught if they had chosen not to travel togther or at least pretended not to know each other while travelling together.
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