4 Texas Jail Escapees Arrested in Oklahoma

After more than a week on the run, four escaped inmates from Texas were captured at a convenience store, where two of them had holed up with a hostage Thursday for hours so they could fill up on beef jerky, chips and beer.

Authorities arrested two of the inmates Wednesday night. The other two gave up before dawn Thursday after eating, drinking and smoking through the night as they talked with FBI negotiators, their relatives and their captive, George West.

“They weren’t out to hurt anybody,” said store owner West, 65. He was released unharmed. “They were just looking for something to eat and a way out of here. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen five men eat as much as those two boys did.”

The four inmates--two convicted murders and two murder defendants--broke out of the Montague County Jail in Texas on Jan. 28, overpowering a female guard with a homemade knife and fleeing in her sport-utility vehicle. The escape set off a manhunt across the southern Plains, with authorities suspecting Oklahoma might be their destination because two of the men grew up in the state.

In recent days, the inmates were linked to two burglaries and the theft of a truck; a rifle was taken in one of the burglaries. In the end, the inmates were captured just 50 miles from the jail they fled. The FBI said the men spent several days hiding in a state park and were tired and hungry.

Charles Jordan, 30, was using a pay phone at the combination gas station-convenience store when an FBI agent and a sheriff’s deputy arrested him. Chrystal Soto, 22, came out and gave up, setting up the standoff with the last two inmates, Curtis Gambill and Joshua Bagwell, who had been serving a life sentence for killing a high-school cheerleader.

West said Gambill, 23, and Bagwell, 24, ate voraciously during the standoff, and he began to feel sorry for them. Through the evening, the conversation turned to the fugitives’ dreams of going to Canada and their love of the outdoors.

The surrender was the result of “a very skillful agent developing a rapport” with the escapees, FBI agent Richard Marquise said. “There was discussion about hunting and fishing and what life was in prison.”

West’s wife, Rita, said her husband’s calm personality helped keep things from getting out of control. “He just used a little common sense. He just kept his cool.”

The arrests were a relief to Soto’s stepfather, John Christmas: Soto and Jordan are charged with killing Christmas’ father and stepmother in Bowie, Texas.

“I was glad it ended peacefully,” Christmas said. “They were hungry and cold and were already killers, so everybody was pretty fortunate.”