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>Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 08:33:39 -0700
>X-From_: glxmas(a)alveus.com Tue Jan 29 08:33:38 2002
>Old-Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 07:35:03 -0800
>From: Ginger Beattie <glxmas(a)alveus.com>
>Reply-To: glxmas(a)alveus.com
>Organization: Ancestral Tracks
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>To: CHRISTMAS-L(a)rootsweb.com
>
>X-Envelope-To: CHRISTMAS-L
>
>Police hunt 4 jail escapees
>Law enforcement agents in two states manned roadblocks and checked out
>suspected hiding places for four Montague County Jail inmates who
>escaped early this morning after overpowering a guard.
>The four were identified as Josh Bagwell, Curtis Gambill, Chrystal Soto
>and Charles Jordan. Bagwell and Gambill are serving life sentences for
>murder convictions in connection with the October 1997 slaying of
>Heather Rich of Waurika, while Jordan and Soto are charged with murder
>in connection with last November's murder of James and Ullaine Christmas
>of Bowie.
>According to Montague County Sheriff's Department officials, the four
>used a knife to overpower a night guard at the jail, then fled in the
>guard's 2001 Chevy Tracker, silver with a black top, license tag
>5MB-D88.
>Gambill had just recently been convicted in Montague County of
>conspiracy to commit murder in connection with Rich's death. The
>additional charge was filed after Gambill reneged o
>n a plea agreement to
>provide testimony against Bagwell and Randy Wood, the third man charged
>in connection with Rich's murder. Bagwell was in the jail because he was
>a potential witness against Gambill, and both men were due to be
>returned to the state prison system.
>Soto and Jordan were arrested in early December in the state of
>Washington with a third man after the bodies of the Christmases was
>discovered in a shallow grave outside of Bowie on property the
>Christmases owned. Both were being held without bond on a charge of
>murder.
>
>
>
>
>Four jail escapees include two convicted in
> cheerleader murder
> MONTAGUE, Texas (AP) _ Two convicted murderers and two others
> awaiting trial on capital murder charges were sought Tuesday after
>
> they escaped from the Montague County Jail by overpowering a
> female
> guard and fleeing in her sport utility vehicle.
>
> Two of the escapees were serving life sentences for the 1996
> murder of a 16-year-old Oklahoma cheerleader. The other two were
> arrested in November and charged with two counts of capital murder
>
> in the deaths of an elderly Montague County couple on whose land
> they had been living.
>
> Dan Jordan, a deputy for the Montague County Sheriff's
> Department, said the four escaped at 10:52 p.m. Monday. District
> Attorney Tim Cole said the escapees used a homemade knife to
> overpower the guard, then took her Geo Chevrolet Tracker.
>
> The escapees were identified as Cu
>rtis Allen Gambill of Terral,
> Okla.; Joshua Luke Bagwell of Waurika, Okla.; Crystal Gale Soto,
> 22, of Bowie, Texas; and Charles William Jordan, 30, of Bowie.
>
> ``These are some of the most dangerous individuals that exist in
> our society,'' Cole said early Tuesday. ``We're talking about two
> people that had been convicted of capital murder and are serving
> life sentences; in fact, Curtis Gambill is serving two life
> sentences.
>
> ``The other two are charged with capital murder of elderly
> couple on Thanksgiving weekend just recently in a horrible
> murder,'' the prosecutor said. ``We're not downplaying the danger,
>
> the threat they pose to the public. They need to be very
>careful.''
>
> He said the escapees are believed to be headed to Oklahoma and
> possibly other states. It was not known whether they stayed
> together or split up.
>
> Dee Hazle, a dispatcher with the Jefferson County sheriff's
> office
>in Waurika, which is 45 miles northwest of Montague, said
> officers were patrolling near the Red River early Tuesday.
>
> ``We have just about everybody out just in case they slip
> through,'' she said.
>
> She said the office had received a vehicle description and had
> been told that the escapees were possibly headed north toward
> Oklahoma.
>
> Gambill received two life sentences on charges of murder and
> conspiracy to commit murder, and Bagwell was convicted of capital
> murder in the Oct. 2, 1996, shotgun slaying of Heather Rose Rich
> of
> Waurika, Okla.
>
> Soto and Jordan were arrested along with Willy Christmas, 17,
> the grandson of the victims, on Nov. 28, in Mason County, Wash.,
> two days after the bodies of James Christmas, 76, and his wife,
> Ullain Christmas, 79, were found in a shallow grave on land they
> owned near Bowie, 11 miles southwest of Montague.
>
> The couple had been reported missin
>g on Nov. 26, the same day
> their bodies were found.
>
> Officials said there was some type of conflict between the
> suspects and the couple, but details weren't released.
>
> Gambill and Bagwell were described as 5-foot-8, 160 pounds with
> blonde hair. Gambill has green eyes and Bagwell has hazel eyes.
> Soto is 5-foot-4, 155 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.
> Jordan is 6-foot, 165 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
>
> Gambill on Jan. 16 received a second life prison term after a
> judge found him guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the
> cheerleader killing. Gambill waived his right to a jury trial last
>
> summer. State District Judge Roger Towery pronounced sentence
> on
> the second day of Gambill's trial.
>
> Bagwell also had been moved from state prison to Montague
> County
> in case he was needed as a witness against Gambill, but was never
> called. Bagwell and Gambill were awaiting tra
>nsfer back to the
> state prison system, officials said.
>
> Gambill's first life sentence was handed down in 1997 after he
> pleaded guilty to killing the cheerleader.
>
> It was part of a plea bargain in which Gambill admitted he was
> the triggerman and agreed to testify against two accomplices _
> Bagwell and the victim's former boyfriend, Randy Wood, both of
> Waurika.
>
> After a night of drinking and sex in Bagwell's travel trailer in
> Waurika, the three teens said they were afraid Rich would accuse
> them of rape. They took Rich, who had passed out, and drove for
> several hours before ending up in Texas.
>
> Then, on a remote creek bridge in Montague County, they pumped
> Rich's back and head with nine shotgun shells at close range. Her
> body was found a week later.
>
> Waurika is 45 miles northwest of Montague and only a few miles
> north of the Red River, which is the border between much of
> Oklahoma
>and Texas.
>
> Two years after Gambill pleaded guilty to murder, Cole re-filed
> the conspiracy charges. He said Gambill reneged on the plea deal
> by
> testifying at Bagwell's trial that Wood was the shooter.
>
> Cole also said he wanted to make sure Gambill, who would be
> eligible for parole after serving 35 years of his first life
> sentence, never was released. Gambill's second life term is not to
>
> start until he is up for parole in the first sentence.
>
> In 1997, Bagwell was convicted of murder and conspiracy to
> commit murder. He was sentenced to life on the murder charge and
> to
> 99 years on the conspiracy charge.
>
> Wood, who also accepted a plea bargain before Bagwell's trial,
> stunned prosecutors when he publicly renounced the agreement,
> saying he didn't want jurors to believe his testimony was tainted.
>
> Wood testified against Bagwell in the trial, however. At his own
> trial in 1998, Wood
>was convicted but was spared the death
> penalty.
> He received a life sentence for a single murder charge.
>
> (Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
>
> bn
>
>
>
>
>
>
Herbert Turner
God Bless America
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~research/index.htm