O.C. Fugitive’s Flight Falls Prey to a Comedy of Errors

The breakout itself was so flawless that prison officials still can’t figure out how Huntington Beach murderer Jeanette Lynn Hughes and a helpful prison guard were able to get out unnoticed from a maximum-security facility in Southern California nearly two weeks ago.

But from there, the escape plan--what there was of one--quickly degenerated into a cross between “A Comedy of Errors” and “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” offering what police say was an almost textbook example of how not to flee from the law.

As one Texas police officer quipped, if Hughes had had a gun, she might have shot herself in the foot.

First, Hughes, 36, and her alleged prison-guard accomplice Cindy Marie Coglietti, embarked on their escape just six days before the 26-year-old Coglietti was to get her monthly paycheck for close to $3,000.

Then the duo spent nearly all the money they did have on airplanes, taxis and motels as they hopscotched their way through the Southwest--stopping in Phoenix, Las Vegas and perhaps Dallas before planning possible jaunts to Denver and Louisiana.

Along the way, they each committed a fugitive’s cardinal sin, contacting relatives who later tipped off police as to their location.

Finally, Hughes and Coglietti wound up their travels in one of the fugitive capitals of the nation, El Paso--a city where hordes of law enforcement agencies are based to guard against border crossings.

The two women, who prison officials say developed a close relationship during the time that Coglietti was assigned to guard Hughes as a high escape risk, were apprehended Tuesday night at El Paso International Airport. They were playing cards and waiting for a relative to bring them cash.

The women said they were down to their last $3.

Law enforcement officials noted that Coglietti had not even bothered to get a fake identification--a fundamental tactic among fugitives--and instead gave police at the airport her California driver’s license. Hughes gave an alias.

“They may have had some sensible plan in exposing themselves in all those airports and spending all their money, but it’s sure not obvious to me,” said Ross Dykes, associate warden at the California Institute for Women at Frontera, near Chino in San Bernardino County.

But maybe such a haphazard plan should have been expected from a woman who was serving 26 years to life in prison for murder because her lover killed her husband but forgot the keys to the getaway car.

Hughes was arrested in 1984 not long after her lover and accomplice, Adam Salas Ramirez, fatally shot her husband, computer engineer James Hughes, then fled in the dead man’s car. Ramirez was supposed to switch cars but realized he had left the keys to the getaway vehicle in another jacket. He was caught in the victim’s car just minutes after Hughes--thinking that he had already switched cars--called the police to report a break-in. Hughes and Ramirez had planned on collecting $442,000 in life insurance. Ramirez is serving 28 years to life in prison.

“Jeanette’s capable of some really sophisticated plotting, but this whole escape really sort of mirrors what happened in the murder: There was apparently never much thought about ‘What do we do next,’ ” said attorney Donald G. Rubright, who defended Hughes against the murder charges.

“She tells a pretty convincing story,” Rubright added. “And if it weren’t for the errant car keys and the poor planning (after the murder), they might have gotten away with the whole thing.”

Federal agents have taken limited statements from Hughes and Coglietti, but officials say the full story of just how Hughes managed to get out of the 2,500-inmate prison at Frontera on March 25--and what their plan was afterward--may not come out until their trials.

That process is to begin Monday in U.S. District Court in El Paso, where Hughes faces charges of unlawful flight and Coglietti of aiding and abetting the escapee. They may be extradited to California for prosecution.

The duo’s ultimate mistake, law enforcement officials said, was in going to El Paso sometime last week and checking into a Motel 6 on the remote western fringes of the city, apparently believing it would be too out of the way to draw any police attention.

But the motel is so frequently used by fugitives that El Paso police say they routinely go there to look for people on the lam.

El Paso itself--named “the pass” because of its location between mountain ranges in Mexico and the United States--has such a well-organized and extensive network of local, state, federal and international law enforcement agencies that FBI officials rank it as one of the nation’s premier fugitive-apprehension centers.

Indeed, more than 400 fugitives wanted for crimes throughout the United States are seized each year in the El Paso area, including five criminals featured on recent segments of “America’s Most Wanted,” police said.

The top priority for Hughes and Coglietti, who made brief stops elsewhere in the Southwest, was apparently to keep moving until they could determine a long-range plan, officials said.

“Their movement was to avoid too much time in one particular area,” said FBI Special Agent Terry Kincaid. “They knew there would be an extensive search. They felt that if they stayed in one area too long, they would be spotted.”

Kincaid, describing a problem he said is common among fugitives, said: “Some of these people feel that just getting out is their major surmountable obstacle. Their planning does not extend beyond the walls.”

Although the women managed to elude detection at the Motel 6, Kincaid said they gave themselves away by telephoning family members and making desperate pleas for money. As happens with so many other fugitives, he said, the family members called police rather than risk becoming lawbreakers themselves by aiding a felon.

Their final mistake came in arranging to meet a relative with cash at the El Paso airport--one of the first places law enforcement officers look for fugitives.

“They could have arranged to meet (the contact) somewhere else to see if (he) came alone,” said El Paso Police Detective Ed Camacho. “(But) when you’re on the run, you’re paranoid. And when you’re paranoid, you don’t think.”