Escapee, Weighed Down, Drowned

The same makeshift body armor that helped a condemned killer escape from death row dragged him to his death just a few minutes later when he sank to the bottom of a river and drowned, officials said Friday.

An autopsy on the body of Martin E. Gurule, 29--who escaped from the Ellis Unit prison in Huntsville just after midnight on Nov. 27--found that he was so weighed down by extra clothes and magazines and cardboard strapped to his body that he could not stay afloat when he jumped into the Trinity River near the prison.