TX - Death row inmate Charles Thompson walks out of Harris County jail

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LE has to call all jurors & people who testify if a prisoner escapes.

My aunt served on a murder trial they found him guilty.
He told the jurors to remember his face he'd get them one by one.

He escaped but ran for his life......LE caught up with him. Back to prison he went.
 


Thompson was led handcuffed to the booth where he met with an atty - and the meeting booth was also locked as a matter of protocol.

He was not wearing handcuffs or his jail jumpsuit when he walked out of the Jail.

Reported on Abrams ...

Two hours prior to his escape - Thompson was wearing an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed & locked in the atty-prisoner conference booth.


So, it appears he brought his civilian clothes with him and apparently changed in the atty-client locked booth. That means he kept his civilian clothes in his county jail cell for 6 days without being detected. Not to mention the badge & Atty Gen. office ID card.

The criminal defense atty that represented Thompson in Court last friday when he was found "guilty" for the 2nd time - was NOT the same atty that visited him just prior to his escape. It was not even an atty from that firm. Not an atty of record. No one seems to know who the atty was.

What's going on here? Sounds like he had help somewhere along the line - along with the total ineptness of the Houston County Jail personnel.

This case was discussed both on Crier & Abrams this evening.

13th Juror
 
So... maybe the 2nd attorney wasn't an attorney at all, and rather an accomplice?
 
It's now clear to authorities that convicted killer Charles Victor Thompson had help in his bold escape last week from the Harris County Jail.

The khaki pants and dark-blue shirt Thompson wore when he walked out of the 1200 Baker jail Thursday afternoon were discovered the next day behind a nearby county jail, said Lt. John Martin, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

A deputy making routine rounds Friday found the clothing behind the building at 1307 Baker, across the street from the jail where Thompson escaped, Martin said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3440344

Attorney: Escaped killer 'charming, articulate'
An attorney for Charles Victor Thompson described the escaped death-row inmate on Saturday as "charming, articulate and well-spoken," and said it's doubtful that the convicted murderer would kill again.

A nationwide manhunt continued for Thompson, 35, who brazenly walked out of Harris County Jail unhindered on Thursday after meeting with an attorney, escaping from handcuffs, changing into street clothes and flashing a fake ID badge.

Hayslip's mother, Wynona Donaghy of Tomball, Texas, and other relatives of the victims have gone into hiding.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/05/inmate.escapes/index.html

Local reaction
http://lonestartimes.com/2005/11/04/dangerous-killer-still-on-the-loose/
 
Everyone in this country is in danger when a dangerous criminal escapes. The why and how need to be accounted for immediately. There is absolutely no excuse for something like this. Thompson should be hunted as "wanted; dead".
 



Officials 'embarrassed' by death row escape​


Associated Press
Posted on Sat, Nov. 05, 2005


HOUSTON - Harris County officials blamed "100 percent human error" for the escape of inmate Charles Victor Thompson as jurors and his victims' relatives worried the convicted killer would come after them.

"This was 100 percent human error; that's the most frustrating thing about it," sheriff's spokesman Lt. John Martin said Friday. "There were multiple failures. There were several points where it could have been prevented."

Thompson, 35, walked out of Harris County Jail on Thursday after freeing himself from handcuffs, changing into civilian clothes and leaving a visitors' area wearing a fake ID badge.

Authorities said the death row prisoner fooled at least four jail employees before leaving the prison.

"As a department, we're embarrassed about this," said Chief Deputy Danny Billingsley. "We're going to find out what happened and we're going to fix it."

As authorities continued to search for Thompson Friday and investigate how he escaped, the families of his victims and members of his resentencing jury said they feared for their safety.

Several victims' relatives went into hiding or agreed to police protection after Thompson's escape, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The mother of victim Dennise Hayslip, Thompson's ex-girlfriend, said she viewed the man who fatally shot her daughter in 1998 as a continued threat.

"He can make people believe he is the most innocent man in the world," Wynona Donaghy said.

"If somebody is helping him, they don't realize how dangerous he is."

Cathy Lange, who served on a resentencing jury that recommended the death penalty for Thompson on Oct. 28, said she was "terrified" when she learned of Thompson's escape.

"I was shaking," Lange told the Chronicle. "I went all over the house making sure that all the windows were locked."

Lange said she later decided that Thompson would be more concerned with escaping than with hunting down jury members, but she added that other jurors with whom she had spoken were also worried.

"They indicated their fear," Lange said. "This is a horrible experience - no telling what they are going through."

Thompson was condemned in 1999 for the shooting deaths a year earlier of Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of nearby Spring.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered he be resentenced and a new jury again recommended the death penalty Oct. 28. Thompson was being held in the county jail pending his transfer back to prison in Livingston, about 75 miles to the northeast.

On Thursday afternoon, Thompson claimed he had an appointment with his lawyer and was taken to a meeting room. The visitor was NOT Thompson's attorney, Terrence Gaiser, who said he had no plans to meet Thompson that day.

Martin said investigators are questioning the visitor but wouldn't provide more details.

After the visitor left, Thompson removed his handcuffs and his bright orange prison jumpsuit, Martin said.

He left the room wearing a dark blue shirt, khaki pants and white tennis shoes, along with a fake identification badge, and claimed to work for the Texas Attorney General's office.

Thompson used the story to get past at least four jail employees, one of whom let him into the jail's visitor's lobby, Martin said. Thompson then left the building.

Martin said investigators would examine how Thompson got past jail personnel and whether he had *inside help*, questioning employees, inmates and other visitors.



13th Juror - totally appalled by the ineptness of this LE agency! There are *no excuses* for this - none! :banghead:

 


Not that it makes any difference - but, I noted that that Thompson (now 35) would have been 27 or 28 yrs old back in 1998 when he murdered Dennise - his 39 yr. old ex-girlfriend & her new 30 yr. old boyfriend.

Guess it's no big deal these days - but, it kinda peaked my interest why an almost 40 yr. old woman would be hooking up with 27-30 yr old young guys.

I can't quite put my finger on it - but, as the Mom of a 28 yr. old son - that would have concerned me.

13th Juror
 
He has been captured in Shreveport, LA. Whew.....more to come.....
 
FULL STORY: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/ap_on_re_us/death_row_escape


6 minutes ago

HOUSTON - A death row inmate who slipped out of the Harris County courthouse wearing street clothes has been captured in Shreveport, La., the U.S. Marshals Service said Sunday night.

Marianne Matus, a Marshals spokeswoman in Houston, confirmed convicted killer Charles Victor Thompson was in custody. No other details were immediately available
 
The Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force got a tip today that led Shreveport police and the U.S. Marshal's Service to the 700 block of 70th Street, where officers saw a man they thought to be Thompson on a bicycle near a pay phone in front of the liquor store. When asked to identify himself, he replied, "You know who I am."

Asked again, he responded, "My name is Charles Thompson."

Thompson, 35, appeared to be intoxicated, police said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory2/3443019
 
13th Juror said:


Not that it makes any difference - but, I noted that that Thompson (now 35) would have been 27 or 28 yrs old back in 1998 when he murdered Dennise - his 39 yr. old ex-girlfriend & her new 30 yr. old boyfriend.

Guess it's no big deal these days - but, it kinda peaked my interest why an almost 40 yr. old woman would be hooking up with 27-30 yr old young guys.

I can't quite put my finger on it - but, as the Mom of a 28 yr. old son - that would have concerned me.

13th Juror
Click to expand...

Maybe he was looking for a mother figure....some men do.
 
The brazen jailbreak that bought a condemned killer three more days of freedom has cost one Harris County sheriff's deputy his job and led to disciplinary action against seven other jailers.

Sheriff Tommy Thomas announced the measures Monday while reasserting his belief that Charles Victor Thompson was able to walk out of the Harris County Jail early this month strictly because of human error — not because of outside help or flawed procedures.

Calling Thompson a "cunning" man who used his affable personality to dupe the jail staff, Thomas said the double murderer told investigators he had planned his escape for about two years.

"There is no reason to believe anyone else was involved in this, knowingly involved, in aiding this individual," the sheriff said.

The security lapse cost a 12-year veteran of the sheriff's office his job for failing to properly restrain Thompson and failing to lock a visitor booth from which the killer was able to walk freely on Nov. 3, Thomas said.

From there, Thompson conned his way out of the jail at 1200 Baker by posing as a state employee. He told investigators he hopped a freight train out of town before being arrested on Nov. 6 outside a Shreveport liquor store.

After his recapture, Thompson told authorities he had begun planning his escape soon after learning he had won another sentencing trial. He said he smuggled a handcuff key, civilian clothes and his prison ID card into the jail, hiding them in his cell or among his court documents, the sheriff said.

"He was a very cunning individual," Thomas said. "He told us he tried to be very friendly to the jail staff, overly friendly, and used that to his advantage."

Investigators said Thompson told them he kept his civilian clothes after his last court appearance and hid them in his cell. After meeting with a Houston lawyer who was not involved in his case, he slipped out of his cuffs and into the clothes. From there, he used his prison badge, with the word "offender"covered with tape, to convince guards that he was an investigator from the Texas Attorney General's Office.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3477050.html
 
I'm glad to see some serious changes and firings over this. They have to protect the public from incarcerated criminals.
 
SewingDeb said:
I'm glad to see some serious changes and firings over this. They have to protect the public from incarcerated criminals.
Click to expand...

That is part of the problem. They haven't made any serious changes. They just fired the little guys (the deputies). The sheriff says that no policies need to be changed.
One thing that I could see was that the guy was able to put a piece of tape on his prison ID and make it look like an employee badge. That needs to be changed. They need to be a different color background or something, to make it impossible for anyone to alter it to look like an employee badge.
I don't even work there, and I can see that. If someone who works there would talk, bet they could come up with other policies that need changing.
 
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