Prison escapees captured
Two inmates who escaped from a Florence prison on Saturday were captured and taken into custody on Thursday.
Two escaped Florence prison inmates were captured and back in police custody, officials confirmed Thursday.
Upon capture, the men looked exhausted, weak and bloodied and wore ripped, dirty clothing.
The Coolidge Police Department received multiple calls about 9 a.m. Thursday from citizens about the prisoners, David T. Harmon and John B. Charpiot.
Two of the citizens said they believed they saw Harmon and Charpiot, the inmates who escaped from “medium custody” in the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence last Saturday.
Coolidge Police Department said it was just eight minutes from call to capture. The men were in custody awaiting transport back to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry as of Thursday afternoon.
A preliminary investigation revealed the men had breached the pris
on’s fence line by using tools they retrieved from the prison’s tool room, prison officials said. It was unclear when they retrieved the tools.
Shortly after escaping, the two men tried to rob a business in Florence on Saturday, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
At a news conference on Thursday, authorities reported that the two inmates were back in custody within 110 hours, or about four and a half days. Authorities searched more than 800 houses over the last 16 hours during efforts to locate them.
On Thursday, five deputy U.S. marshals from Tucson went to Coolidge to work on an unrelated case when a Coolidge resident called to report a disturbance in a nearby cotton field, according to U.S. Marshal David Gonzales. Coolidge is about 10 miles southwest of Florence.
The deputy marshals went out to the field to investigate. They noticed people in the field and established a perimeter, Gonzales said.
The two inmates tried to run away, but they were in poor physical condition. They did not follow directions from law enforcement, and officers used a Taser to take both of them into custody, Gonzales said.
The men told law enforcement, “Just shoot me,” after being captured, officials said during the news conference.
The investigation is ongoing while authorities continue to look into where the men were during the last few days and what allowed them to escape.
A reward of $35,000 per escapee was offered for information leading to the arrest of the men. The process of rewarding money to the people who called in the tips leading to the arrest is ongoing, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
Charpiot was serving 35 years in prison and Harmon was serving 100 years, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and
Reentry.
Charpiot was imprisoned in 2011 after he was convicted in Maricopa County of molestation of a child and sexual abuse and sentenced to 35 years, the department said.
Harmon was imprisoned in 2012 after he was convicted in Maricopa County of kidnapping and second-degree burglary charges and sentenced to serve 100 years, the department said.
In 1992, Harmon was convicted in Maricopa County of escape in the second degree, according to the department’s online records. He’s had multiple convictions since 1987, including attempt to commit sexual assault and attempt to commit kidnapping, records show.
“This was an event that struck fear in several of our nearby close-knit communities,” Coolidge Police Chief Harry Grizzle said in a statement. “We are thankful that no one was seriously injured during the apprehension.”