Escapee's mom charged with smuggling tool - Bail Set @ $700,000 for Texas Mom

The mother of a Texas prison escapee faces an additional charge stemming from a foiled attempt to break her son out of an Oklahoma jail, officials said Tuesday.

Cherese Smith was charged Tuesday in Carter County with smuggling a hacksaw blade into the jail where her son, convicted killer Joshua Bagwell, was being held, police said.

She was initially arraigned on conspiracy and firearms charges in Jefferson County stemming from the same incident. Bail for all three charges has been set at $700,000.

Mr. Bagwell, convicted killer Curtis Gambill, and murder suspects Charles William Jordan and Chrystal Gale Soto escaped from the Montague County Jail in January and led police on a 10-day manhunt before being captured at an Ardmore, Okla., convenience store in Carter County.

Three weeks later, Ms. Smith was charged with plotting to help Mr. Bagwell and Mr. Gambill break out again.

The initial charges were filed against her in neighboring Jefferson County, where she was arrested. The most recent charge was filed by officials in Carter County, where the escape was to take place.

Mr. Bagwell and Mr. Gambill were serving life sentences for the 1996 shotgun slaying of 16-year-old Waurika, Okla., cheerleader Heather Rose Rich when they escaped from the Montague County Jail. They have been returned to Texas prisons in Huntsville and Gatesville.

At the time of the escape, Mr. Jordan and his girlfriend, Ms. Soto, were being held in connection with the slaying of an elderly Bowie couple late last year. Mr. Jordan has since been indicted on a capital murder charge in their deaths; Ms. Soto has been indicted on lesser charges of theft and evidence destruction, an official said.

They continued to be held in the Carter County Jail. Mr. Jordan's case has been transferred to Tarrant County, where he faces trial in November.

Here is prior story from FR article post........

Montague jail escapees captured in Oklahoma
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/623463/posts

Montague jail escapees captured in Oklahoma

Standoff in convenience store ends peacefully

02/07/2002

Associated Press

Related
Escapee's relative could be charged

ARDMORE, Okla. - Two convicted murderers who broke out of a Texas jail surrendered peacefully early Thursday, hours after seizing a hostage at an Oklahoma gas station. Two other fugitives who escaped with the pair last month were also captured.

The hostage-takers, Curtis Gambill and Joshua Bagwell, gave up at 4:30 a.m., FBI Special Agent Richard Marquise said.

The surrender was the result of "a very skillful agent developing a rapport" with the fugitives, Marquise said. He said the fugitives' only request was to talk to relatives by telephone.

The hostage, store owner George West, 70, emerged unharmed.

Authorities arrested the other escaped inmates, Chrystal Gale Soto and Charles Jordan, outside the store at 9:50 p.m. Wednesday while Jordan was using a pay phone, said Kym Koch, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Soto and Jordan are both murder suspects.

The four have been linked to two burglaries in recent days and the theft of a flatbed truck in southern Oklahoma. A .22-caliber rifle was taken in one of the burglaries.

Michael Ainsworth / DMN

A tactical officer stands outside the gas station.

The stolen truck was found in Lake Murray State Park on Saturday, about a mile from where the hostage standoff took place. The fugitives apparently had been hiding in the park for the last several days, FBI agent Sam Macaluso said.

The standoff lasted as long as it did because Gambill and Bagwell took the opportunity to eat more food than they had in more than a week, Marquise said.

"I think they were enjoying their last moments of freedom before going to prison for the rest of their lives," he said.

All four fugitives were taken to the Carter County Jail in Ardmore after their arrests. It was not immediately known when they would appear in court.

The four had fled the Montague County Jail in northern Texas on Jan. 28. They used a makeshift knife to overpower a guard and escape in her sport utility vehicle.

A Texas prosecutor told The Dallas Morning News for Thursday's editions that one inmate's relative would likely be charged with assisting in the escape. He declined to elaborate.

Michael Ainsworth / DMN

Clark County sheriff's deputies talk to the family of the clerk who was held hostage.

The escape set off a massive manhunt across the southern Plains. Authorities suspected that Oklahoma might be their destination because Gambill and Bagwell were raised there.

FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said authorities received a tip that the fugitives might be at the gas station, and an FBI agent sent to the scene recognized Jordan and arrested him. Soto came out of the store and gave up, but Gambill and Bagwell refused to leave.

The inmates told authorities they had walked about 40 miles since they broke out of jail. Soto and Jordan told investigators they were ready to come out of the woods.

"While Gambill and Bagwell were outdoorsmen, Soto and Jordan were not," Macaluso said. "So this was a tough row to hoe for them."

Gambill, 23, of Terral, and Bagwell, 24, of Waurika, were convicted in the 1996 slaying of Heather Rose Rich, a 16-year-old cheerleader from Waurika. Each was sentenced to life in prison and had recently been returned to Montague for further proceedings.

Gambill, Bagwell and the victim's former boyfriend said they feared Rich would accuse them of rape after a night of drinking and sex.

Jordan, 30, and Soto, 22, of Bowie, Texas, were jailed in the deaths of an elderly couple.

FBI special agent Richard Marquise, left, and Ardmore Chief of Police Tony Garrett talk to the media after two hostage-takers surrendered today.

Their escape is the latest in a string of high-profile Texas breakouts; more than 140 people escaped from Texas jails last year.

Two inmates were discovered missing early Wednesday from the Hood County jail. Authorities said Michael Ray West and James Michael Vick crawled through an air conditioning vent to the roof. West, 32, was being held on a felony charge of unlawfully carrying a weapon and Vick, 28, was charged with delivery of a controlled substance.

In December 2000, seven inmates overpowered guards in a high-security Texas prison and led authorities on a six-week manhunt, killing a police officer during the chase.

Last October, five inmates broke out of jail by crawling through the ventilation system and tunneling through a dirt floor. Two of them abducted two women and held an elderly couple hostage before surrendering.

A month later, two inmates broke out of another jail by scaling a wall. They allegedly robbed a liquor store and led authorities on a foot chase for several hours before they were captured.

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/captured_07tex.4b6bd.html

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