Fugitive Couple From Tenn. Nabbed in Ohio

By NICK JULIANO

The Associated Press
Thursday, August 11, 2005; 8:59 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The cabbie who picked up the couple suspected in a deadly courthouse escape in Tennessee said Thursday they told him they were going to an Amway convention, but the story "didn't really seem to wash."

The couple was arrested at the America's Best Value Inn in Columbus, Ohio, after at least 25 officers surrounded their room, ending a more than 300-mile manhunt, authorities said.

A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation command center is parked outside the Roane County Courthouse door Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005, in Kintston, Tenn. where correctional officer Wayne Morgan was shot and killed during an inmate escape Tuesday. Authorities said inmate George Hyatte was being taken from the courthouse when his wife, Jennifer Hyatte, shot Morgan. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (Mark Humphrey - AP)

A tip from cabdriver Mike Wagers led police to George and Jennifer Hyatte, who were arrested without a struggle Wednesday night at a budget motel in Columbus, authorities said.

Wagers said he drove the Hyattes about 115 miles from Erlanger, Ky., to Columbus, and dropped them off at a budget motel. The fare was $185, he told The Associated Press.

Jennifer Hyatte is accused of ambushing two prison guards Tuesday as they were leading her husband _ a convicted robber _ from a hearing in Kingston, Tenn., fatally shooting one before the couple sped away, authorities said.

Wagers said he didn't make the connection with the killing until he returned to Kentucky and a friend urged him to call the police. Authorities had announced that the couple's van had been found in Erlanger.

"I was at home relaxing, playing video games, when I heard I might be the one," he said.

He already had been dubious about the couple's Amway story "because, to be honest, they weren't very pushy about their product."

"The cover story they gave me didn't really seem to wash too much," Wagers told CBS' "The Early Show." "I could kinda see through that. But I had no indication that these guys were really dangerous or they were on the run."

When police finally tracked the couple down at the motel, Deputy U.S. Marshal Nikki Ralston called their second-floor room and told them they were surrounded.

"A female answered the phone," Ralston said. "And I said, 'Hey, Jennifer.' She said, 'Yes,' and I knew it was her."

"I said you need to get George, both of you need to exit the hotel room and follow the directions of the officers who will be to your immediate right," Ralston said.

Motel guest Robin Penn, who was watching from across the parking lot, said Jennifer Hyatte was limping as she left the room with her hands up. George Hyatte then came out with his shirt pulled over his head, walked backward toward the stairwell, got on his knees and was handcuffed.

Inside the couple's motel room, cans of Mountain Dew and Hawaiian Punch littered the night table, and bags of takeout food wrappers were on a desk. One of the two mattresses was pushed halfway off the box spring.

George Hyatte was taken to the Franklin County jail, said John Bolen, a supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus. Jennifer Hyatte was treated for a bullet wound to the leg, then taken to the jail early Thursday, police said. Police believe she was hit by return gunfire from one of the two guards escorting her husband Tuesday.

The couple was expected to be brought back to Tennessee on warrants for first-degree murder in the death of Wayne "Cotton" Morgan, 56, authorities said.

Earlier Wednesday, outside a motel in Erlanger, authorities had tracked down a van the couple was believed to have used. The couple was gone, but authorities knew then that they were getting close.

Blood had been found in the motel room, and an employee at a nearby restaurant told federal agents she had given directions that day to a couple she later recognized as the fugitives.

George Hyatte, 34, had been in court to plead guilty to a robbery charge before the escape Tuesday. He was two years into a 35-year sentence for robbery and assault.

The escape was at least the fifth time he had gotten away from law enforcement officials between 1990 and 2002.

Jennifer Hyatte, 31, met her husband as a prison nurse and was fired last year for sneaking food to him. A few months later, she got permission from the warden to marry Hyatte, who has a long and violent criminal record.

Her ex-husband, Eli Gourdin, told the Deseret Morning News of Salt Lake City that he last spoke with Jennifer Hyatte on Monday when she told him how excited she was that George was going to be released.

"We don't know George, we can't judge George ...," Gourdin's current wife, Katie, told the paper for Thursday's editions. "We only know what Jennifer's told us. She's very much in love with him."

Eli Gourdin said Jennifer Hyatte had custody of their three children, the oldest of whom is 12. The children have been staying with him for the summer, he said.

Associated Press writers Lisa Cornwell in Erlanger, Ky., and Duncan Mansfield in Kingston, Tenn., contributed to this report.

Note: This woman, Jennifer Hyatte had custody of her 3 children and now we can see from her bizarre behaviour that she probably suffered from some mental health problem.

Lets see, can she claim to be an abused woman as a result of her first or second husband?