Escapee Says He Didn’t Consider Killing Family, but U.S. Accuses Him of Threats

A New Mexico prison escapee accused of abducting an Arizona family of five en route to Orange County, where he was arrested Thursday with two fellow escapees, told a federal magistrate Friday through his attorney that he never hurt any of the family and never considered killing them.

But Asst. U.S. Atty. Nancy W. Stock responded that there is considerable evidence that James Neal Kinslow’s alleged abduction of the family included “very aggravated assaults on a couple of members of the family.”

Kinslow was charged Friday with kidnaping Malina Blade, 11, youngest of three children of William and Mary Blade. All the members of the Blade family were abducted from their home in Flagstaff on Wednesday and forced to drive to Barstow in San Bernardino County.

Death Threats

Federal officials charged in court papers that Kinslow repeatedly threatened to kill family members if they did not cooperate. The officials added that Kinslow tied up the family in a Barstow motel but took Malina with him to Garden Grove in the Blades’ van.

When he left her momentarily while stopped for gas, Malina wrote a note to her family, “telling them that she loved them and asking them to take care of her hamster,” the documents said.

Malina said later that she wrote the note because she feared Kinslow was going to kill her, according to the documents.

In Garden Grove on Wednesday night, Kinslow is accused of leaving the girl near a dumpster and ordering her to wait for him. But she left and eventually flagged down a Garden Grove police officer. Officials said Malina told them that Kinslow had been near a motel that had the word “fire” in its name.

Kinslow was arrested alone in the van about 5 a.m. Thursday morning near the Fire Station Motel in Garden Grove. His two fellow escapees, William Gilbert and David Gallegos, were arrested inside the motel less than two hours later. All were heavily armed.

Seven inmates altogether escaped from a prison near Santa Fe, N.M. Kinslow and Gilbert were both under life sentences for murder. Gallegos faced more than a hundred years in prison on a string of robberies.

Kinslow’s court-appointed attorney, Maurice Mandel, told U.S. Magistrate Ronald W. Rose that Kinslow wanted the court to know that some details police had reported about the prison escape were not accurate. For example, he said, a prison guard was shot at very close range, which showed that the assailant (officials believe it was Gilbert) intended to hit the shoulder and wound rather than kill.

Mandel later said Kinslow told him the guard was shot because the guard thought it was a toy gun, and the prison escapees wanted to convince him that they were serious.

Mandel also told the court that Kinslow wanted the magistrate to know he had plenty of opportunities to hurt or kill members of the Blade family, but never did. Court documents indicate that Kinslow was alone in the kidnaping.

2 Awaiting Transportation

Mandel said after the hearing that while he knew such statements would make no difference Friday in court, Kinslow thought that some reports about the escape had painted the wrong picture about the kind of person he is.

Prosecutor Stock said Kinslow was charged with a single count of kidnaping Malina Blade so he could be held for proceedings in California instead of being returned to New Mexico along with Gilbert and Gallegos, who are being held awaiting transportation.

Stock said officials expect a federal grand jury to return a multiple-count indictment, involving kidnap of the entire family, plus assault charges. She refused to say whether the girl was injured.

It was also revealed at the hearing that while Kinslow was serving his New Mexico sentence, he was transferred to a facility in Wyoming, where he was facing other charges in 1981, and he escaped from that facility too. He was caught about 30 days later, according to Mandel.

Next Hearing Aug. 24

Mandel said after Friday’s hearing that federal officials were not taking the kidnap charges lightly just because Kinslow is already serving two consecutive life sentences for a 1978 triple murder: “Authorities believe that the public is incensed about this incident and that they need to make a serious response to what happened.”

Rose denied bail and scheduled Kinslow’s next hearing for Aug. 24 in Los Angeles.