Parents’ Tips Led to Capture of Two Fugitives

The distraught parents of escaped Orange County murderer Jeanette Lynn Hughes and her alleged prison-guard accomplice placed calls to California prison officials that led to their capture after 10 days on the run, authorities said Thursday.

Hughes’ father, James C. Tugwell of San Bernardino, notified authorities last Saturday that his daughter had called an aunt, asking for money and indicating that she was somewhere in west Texas.

Last Monday, Sandra Coglietti, mother of fugitive prison guard Cindy Marie Coglietti, told police that Cindy had called a sister asking that money be brought the following night to El Paso International Airport, said Detective Keith Henricksen of the San Bernardino County Sherriff’s Department.

During a brief interview Thursday at her home in San Bernardino County, Sandra Coglietti said, “As a mother, I am hurting very bad.” She declined to elaborate further on the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s capture.

FBI agents, alerted that the fugitives were in west Texas, swooped down on the El Paso airport Tuesday night and, together with local police, arrested the two women as they apparently waited for the money to arrive.

Hughes, 36, of Huntington Beach, was detained on federal charges of escaping from the California Institute for Women at Frontera on March 25. She was serving 26 years to life for the murder of her husband. Coglietti, 26, a guard in the same housing unit as Hughes, was arrested on federal charges of aiding and abetting Hughes’ escape.

Both women remain in the El Paso County Detention Facility pending a preliminary hearing scheduled Monday in federal court.

Coglietti had asked for money from her sister so that she and Hughes could fly to Denver, Henricksen said. The women disclosed in federal court Wednesday that they were down to their last $3.

Henricksen said the pair apparently decided to go to Colorado after Hughes’ aunt in Shreveport, La., turned down her request for money.

The aunt, Frances Albritton, 69, said that she and her husband, Earl, told Hughes’ father about the call and that he in turn notified officials at the state prison from which Hughes escaped.

“He wanted her back in custody. We all did,” Albritton said Thursday in a telephone interview. “Because she was running, she had no money. She had nothing but the clothes on her back. And I know that if she got desperate enough, something bad would happen.”

According to a criminal complaint filed in El Paso U.S. District Court, state and federal authorities searching for the fugitives hadn’t a clue as to their whereabouts until Tugwell’s call.

“If (the fugitives’ families) hadn’t worked with us, we would have had a real tough time finding them,” said Ross Dykes, associate warden of the California Institute for Women.

“I think the parents were convinced of the fact that it would not help for them to run,” Henricksen said.

At the time of their disappearance, authorities knew only that Hughes had escaped and that Coglietti had disappeared the same day. Coglietti’s relatives filed a missing-persons report when she failed to show up for her next scheduled shift on March 29, Henricksen said.

On the afternoon of March 30, Albritton said, she received a call from Hughes, a niece she had not seen or spoken with in 10 years. Albritton said she asked Hughes if she had “some good news for me,” hoping that Hughes had been paroled.

“She said, ‘No, I’m afraid not.’ She said, ‘I walked out . . . because my life was in danger,’ ” Albritton said.

Hughes declined to elaborate on the danger, nor would she disclose exactly where she was calling from, Albritton said. She would only say that she was “somewhere in west Texas” and that she was traveling with a friend, whom she described only as “a guard,” Albritton said.

“She said, ‘I need some help . . . could you and Uncle Brit possibly let me have some money?’ ” Albritton said.

Not wanting to break the law by helping her out, Albritton said, she asked Hughes to call back in two hours, when her husband was scheduled to return. The fugitives refused to wait. Albritton then telephoned Tugwell, who notified the police.

Tugwell declined comment Thursday.

Authorities were able to pinpoint the fugitives’ location in west Texas after Coglietti telephoned a sister living in Southern California on Monday, Henricksen said.

The sister, whom Henricksen knew only as Dawn, was asked by Coglietti if her husband could fly to El Paso and give them money for plane tickets to Denver, Henricksen said.

“We did not know that they had a plan to go to Denver--that caught us by surprise,” Dykes said. “Their route, maybe it made sense to them, but to go from Phoenix to Las Vegas to El Paso and then to Denver, it was almost just kind of silly, really. But they may have had an elaborate plan that we didn’t know about.”

The sister told her mother about the call, and the mother called California prison authorities, Henricksen said. Hughes and Coglietti apparently went to the El Paso airport to await the husband’s arrival, Henricksen said.

Although Hughes gave a false name to arresting police, Coglietti admitted under FBI interrogation that she had assisted in Hughes’ escape, according to police and federal court records.

In El Paso U.S. District Court on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Janet C. Ruesch ordered that Hughes be held without bond and that Coglietti be held in lieu of $40,000 bond.

Associate Warden Dykes said that in addition to the federal charges, Coglietti will be charged with violating section 4533 of the California Penal Code, which concerns a “keeper permitting a prisoner to escape.”

Dykes also said prison officials were attempting to sort out complex state procedures in an effort to “separate (Coglietti) from state service.” Coglietti has been classified as absent without official leave but will remain on the state payroll pending an administrative proceeding before the State Personnel Board, Dykes said.

“I’m not sure we could prohibit her from getting her (paycheck),” he said. “If she had earned income, we’d probably have to release it to her.”

Henricksen said Coglietti had been attempting to work out a deal under which she would cooperate with police in exchange for facing only the federal charges.

Hughes was convicted of first-degree murder in the Jan. 10, 1984, death of her husband, James. In what was determined to be a collaborative plot to collect $442,000 in life insurance, Hughes’ lover, Adam Salas Ramirez, killed the victim with two shots to the head while Hughes slept beside him. Ramirez is serving a 28-years-to-life sentence for first-degree murder.

Staff writers Tony Marcano and Ted Johnson contributed to this report.