Posted on 11/18/2005 10:33:37 AM PST by newgeezer
Fort Madison, IA — The second of two inmates who escaped from an Iowa prison was caught Friday in southern Missouri, officials said.
Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, serving a sentence for attempted murder, was captured in Steele, Mo., officials said. On Thursday, convicted murderer Martin Moon, 34, had been caught near Chester, Ill.
The men scaled a wall Monday at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, about 325 miles from where Legendre was captured.
Steele police Chief Mike Tomlinson found Legendre at a truck stop, in a pickup truck that had been reported stolen, said Ryan Holder, a Pemiscott County, Mo., sheriff's investigator. Legendre gave up peacefully and was in custody in Pemiscott County, Holder said.
Moon was returned to Iowa later Thursday, said Fred Scaletta, an Iowa prison spokesman. He made an initial appearance Friday in a courtroom inside the prison, charged with escape, and a public defender was appointed to represent him.
Legendre was convicted in Nevada in the kidnapping and attempted murder of a Las Vegas cabbie and was transferred to Iowa last year. He was serving two sentences of 15 years to life. Moon was convicted of murder in 2000 for shooting his roommate during a drug deal in 1990 and was serving a life sentence.
Authorities said the two escaped using a homemade hook and a rope fashioned from upholstery materials taken from the prison furniture shop. They went over an unguarded section of wall late Monday and got around a wire that is supposed to activate an alarm when touched.
Based on Moon's account, police had said they believed the pair immediately split. The towns where the two men were caught are about 125 miles apart.
Police in Randolph County, Ill., discovered Moon after officials at Illinois' Menard State Penitentiary called to report a car parked nearby. When an officer stopped to run on a check on its license plates, Moon drove off, but crashed into a fence. Moon then tried to run away before being caught by a police dog.
The car was believed to have been stolen from a home in Ferris, Ill., officials said.
An investigation of the escape was under way, Gov. Tom Vilsack said. "There were a series of mistakes that were made," he said.
A corrections official has said the guard tower near the spot where the inmates went over the wall was unmanned at the time because of budget cuts.
Steele police Chief Mike Tomlinson found Legendre at a truck stop, in a pickup truck that had been reported stolenForgot to add that item to his escape plan:
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22. Stay out of stolen pickup trucks.
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Damn. They never make it away. It's almost as if trying to escape is futile. They should let these guys go, or at least the guy in Texas that had the costume and fake badge, as a reward for being so creative.
Is Robert Anthoney Williams still locked up at the Fort ?
I'm wondering about the possible siting at the St Louis airport. I thinking he didn't realize how locked down airports are these days. I bet he high tailed it away from there.
He's a monster. What it he doing at a "reformatory" ?
I just noticed Anamosa is now a penitentiary. When did this change ?
At any rate, it may have been nothing more than a name change.
Perhaps this means the Dept. of Corrections has set a more realistic goal of achieving simple penitence, as opposed to actual reformation. ;)
Steele is in the Missouri bootheel, just about 15 miles north of Blytheville, Arkansas.
Not sure what "do who" means but, I can tell you the airport thing is in the Register story, which you can find by clicking the large, linked headline at the bottom of the article at the top of this thread.
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