Last of 3 Inmates Caught; Woman Says She Planned Escape by Copter

The last of the three convicts who made a daring helicopter breakout from the New Mexico State Prison on Monday was arrested early Tuesday morning, and a woman who rode in the escape copter said she is his girlfriend and engineered the attempt out of love for him.

Daniel Mahoney, 30, serving a life sentence plus 60 years for second-degree murder and armed robbery, was seized about 1 a.m. Tuesday when deputies stationed on a bridge spotted him making his way along the Rio Grande. He had eluded searchers for more than 12 hours.

In the Santa Fe County Jail, Beverly Shoemaker, 41, told reporters: “Whatever I did, I did it out of my love for Daniel Mahoney.” She said Mahoney would be 31 today and the escape attempt was “probably my way of giving him a birthday present.”

Pilot Charged With Assisting

Charles Bella, 43, the copter pilot, was charged with assisting in the escape. He reportedly was insisting that Shoemaker had hijacked him at gunpoint, handcuffed his hand to the controls and forced him to fly into the prison yard.

The helicopter was chased by air until it landed here at Mid-Valley Airport, about 20 miles south of Albuquerque. One convict was arrested after a high-speed car chase. Shoemaker was found hiding in a hangar. Mahoney ran for the nearby river and disappeared. The escape copter took off again, pursued by two other helicopters, and eventually landed at the Albuquerque airport, where the third convict and the pilot were arrested.