Casslyn Welch: Pleading guilt v. taking responsibility.

Below is the Washington Post's coverage of Casslyn Welch's guilty plea for her role in this summer's Kingman Prison escape, along with the comment left at the end by private prison expert, Frank Smith. He's right on the money about the whole bungled affair (and reporting - don't take this article at face value). And really, though she may not have intended things to unfold as they did, for her part Cassie should have foreseen the probability of violence and injury to someone as a result of her actions, given who she helped spring.


That said, I should add that Cassie's articulated that she accepts responsibility for the hurt and grief she's caused, regretting that it can't be undone. That will probably get me hate mail for sharing, because of how profound that injury is, but I think the government put out sufficient propaganda compromising her due process from day one of the escape by sensationalizing the extent of an Aryan Brotherhood connection with Charlie, and their supposed romance-between-first-cousins, that I'm not giving her an undue PR advantage. The worse she looks, the better ADC Director Chuck Ryan looks - he can divert attention from the fact that he let Kingman prison get so bad on his watch.


Cassie didn't initiate the contact with me, anyway, or ask me to print anything on her behalf. She was writing in response to my letter to her expressing concerns that I'd heard she wasn't getting her mail. I observed that it also appeared as if she wasn't getting as vigorous a defense as the US Constitution requires, but it turns out that she just doesn't want to put up a fight. I actually gave her an open door, a loaded cannon, and the ACLU's address to lodge a complaint about the conditions of her confinement or the quality of her defense, if she wanted to, but she politely declined any help, and is planning to quietly do her time; I expect to see a guilty plea in New Mexico, too.


This woman wasn't offering her remorse for media consumption, nor do I want to contribute to the frenzy - and glamour - around this case. My bet is she'd rather I leave it alone, frankly. I think she honestly feels she can't justify that what she did led to the murders of the Haas couple, and is ashamed that anyone tries to defend her; it's as if arguing for a "fair" trial seems inappropriate to her.


A few days after writing me back saying she was be treated adequately, though, Cassie took the time and postage to refer another prisoner to me - a young woman who's actually facing even worse trouble for the actions of an abusive partner...I'll probably be posting on that soon. That was right before she entered this plea below.

So, thanks for looking out for the others there, Cassie. There will be more women in need along the oath you've taken, so take care of yourself; you owe the community and grieving families your service, at the least, anyway. There are people who have lost their loved ones in prison recently, due to violence or neglect, who will appreciate what you did for the most reviled mother in this state - as will the families of our prisoners who are still living. You'll have your hands full if you plan to help other women like her in prison - let me know if you think I can help.

That goes for the rest of you in there, too. Cassie stood up for a woman accused of a pretty hideous crime, inviting further animosity from the public and prosecutors at potential risk to herself. That lack of self-interest tells me she's probably sincere.


Don't mistake your plea of guilt for taking responsibility for having harmed others, if you have, folks: let go of the pettiness of prison's minor inconveniences, and do something to help someone else in greater need - including stepping in the line of fire in a losing battle, if it's the right side, and in some cases defending your own rights yourself. In prison, if you don't fight back against the oppression, chances are you'll die waiting for someone who will. How far we advance human rights in the prisons in the next few years will depend a lot more on prisoners like Cassie Welch taking risks than on agitation by free women like me...

So, if you really want to fight power, prisoners,
don't just take a swing, run away, or tell them where to go -
grieve it it right, and write to me instead.

Peggy Plews

Arizona Prison Watch

PO Box 20494

Phoenix, AZ 85036

prisonabolitionist@gmail.com

---------------------------------

Woman accused of aiding inmate trio escape, NM couple’s deaths pleads guilty to Ariz. charges

Washington Post
April 12, 2011
AP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/woman-accused-of-aiding-inmate-trio-escape-nm-couples-deaths-pleads-guilty-to-ariz-charges/2011/04/12/AFFPY2RD_story.html#weighIn

By Associated Press, Tuesday, April 12

KINGMAN, Ariz. — The cousin of an Arizona inmate pleaded guilty Tuesday to state charges of helping him and two other men flee a state prison, but she still faces federal charges in the deaths of an Oklahoma couple who authorities say were killed during the escapees’ run from the law.

Casslyn Welch, 44, entered her plea before Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn, who said he would sentence her after she resolves the pending federal charges. The judge ordered the sentence to be served concurrently with any federal sentence if Welch is convicted.

Under a plea agreement with Arizona prosecutors, Welch will receive 20 years in prison on an escape charge and two counts of armed robbery. Prosecutors agreed to drop kidnapping and aggravated assault charges stemming from the prison break last July, and also dismissed six drug charges in a separate case.

“That’s a good resolution,” said prosecutor Victoria Stazio.

Welch’s attorney declined to comment following the hearing.

Welch is charged in New Mexico on federal carjacking and murder counts relating to the deaths of the couple, whose remains were found in New Mexico. Welch was expected to be transported to that state, where she has an initial hearing Monday in Albuquerque.

Welch previously pleaded not guilty to the Arizona charges from the escape, which sparked a nationwide manhunt. On Tuesday, she acknowledged throwing cutting tools onto the grounds of the medium-security prison near Kingman, which allowed John McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick to break through a perimeter fence and flee into the desert.

Welch, who is McCluskey’s fiancée and cousin, also admitted to supplying them with guns and money, and Renwick with a get-away vehicle.

Province, McCluskey and Welch found themselves without transportation and hijacked a semi-truck at gunpoint near Kingman, forcing the drivers to take them to Flagstaff. Prosecutors say the three also targeted Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., at a rest stop in New Mexico for the couple’s camping trailer. The Haases were taken to a remote ranch where they were shot.

Renwick was captured first after a police shootout in western Colorado, followed by Province. Welch and McCluskey were arrested later at an eastern Arizona campsite.

Welch and Province have pleaded guilty to armed robbery. Neither is listed as witnesses in the Arizona trial of McCluskey, who has pleaded not guilty.

Welch’s drug charges arose from a prison visit last June. Authorities said she lost her visitation rights, but not her phone privileges, when a vehicle search turned up marijuana, heroin and drug paraphernalia.

Welch wasn’t immediately jailed after the search because sheriff’s officials said she agreed to be a drug informant. She was charged following the prison escape with six counts of narcotics violations.

Province was sentenced to more than 38 years on the escape charges, but a judge acknowledged it meant little because Province already was serving a life sentence for prior crimes.

Renwick, who was serving time in Arizona for murder, faces three counts of attempted murder in Colorado.

(Here's the real story...)

fsmith3 wrote:

"The prison corporation, the prison builder and the state of Arizona are being sued by the bereaved family of the Oklahoma victims, for $40 million.·

How can the reporter fail to mention that this escape was from a for-profit prison, operated by Management and Training Corporation of Salt Lake City, Utah?

After the escape, the MTC founder, Bob Marquardt, claimed that this was the corporation's "first major glitch."

Apparently the dozen or more prior escapes they'd experienced, the frequent riots and murders, don't count as "major glitches." Anyone who cares to can watch the YouTube video of two of those murders during a riot at an MTC California prison.

Google: Eagle Mountain/Private Prison Riot gone bad

The AP reporter in this case has chronically repeated mistakes of fact.

This couple was not "taken to a remote ranch and shot." They were shot in their trailer alongside I-44. When the carjackers drove their truck and camper to a filling station they realized blood was running out the door, so they drove to Santa Rosa, NM, then on to rural Colonias, 25 miles north. On a remote ranch, the trailer was detached from their pickup, doused with alcohol, and their remains were cremated inside the trailer after their dogs were freed and watered.

The escapees and their accomplice, Welch, did not "force the drivers to take them to Flagstaff." Welch and McCluskey drove the semi themselves. They voted on whether or not to kill the east Indian drivers, and Welch and Province spared their lives.

The real story is prodigious incompetence, which the AP reporter, Felicia Fonseca, somehow avoids.

The killers never should have been moved to the cracker box Kingman for-profit prison in the first place. They were clearly incapable of handling such security risks. Two were lifers, the third had two fifteen year sentences and a Pennsylvania parole hold. At least two were white supremacists, "security threat group" members who were again well beyond the capacity of the high turnover, poorly trained, paid and chosen staff to manage.

The state also ignored the blatant malfunctioning of the alarm system which never worked well and hadn't been repaired in years. The state's monitors ignored such obvious problems, it's hard to imagine that they were not doing exactly as they had been expected to do. The alarms, for instance, went off scores of times during the 16 hours before the escape, so the green employees ignored them.

The Governor has been trying to shift the blame to her predecessor and director of corrections who preceded her appointee. That simply won't wash. She has taken substantial campaign funding and support from the prison industry which explains the failures of oversight.

The for-profit staff couldn't count properly, so didn't know the escapees were gone for about 2 1/2 hours, were still unable to identify the fugitives, gave inadequate notice to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office and finally delayed notice to the state Department of Corrections for another 80 minutes. The media may not have been alerted until 12 hours after the escape.

The Mohave Sheriff never should have released Welch. Her arrest was widely known, as was her release. Because of that, her cousin would have been quickly marked for a hit by her suppliers. He was almost forced to escape.

The pursuit was lackadaisical. Close relatives and friends of the escapees were not contacted until five days after the escape, in clear disregard of professional correctional policy. By then one had been captured in a Colorado shootout, the other three had gone to Texas, reversed direction to Billings, Montana, and finally the cousins went all the way to Pennsylvania before returning to Arizona."

McCluskey & Welch captured in Apache County, AZ.

Here's the news we've been waiting for: at AZCentral.com. They were driving a car stolen from New Mexico, near where the bodies of the couple that was found murdered were burned. It looks like they just drove around the region then settled in right back here for awhile. The credit for their capture goes to an attentive forest ranger. He was just doing his job, but I sure hope he gets to collect that reward.

Please no more Bonnie and Clyde comparisons, by the way. It just glamorizes what they've done, which is an evil thing, if they indeed murdered the Haas'. They are both cowards and sociopaths, and should not be portrayed in any kind of admirable light.

Rachel Maddow: Brewer, SB 1070, and AZ Prison Privatization.

Here's the link to the Rachel Maddow Show episode that covers the Kingman escape, private prisons in Arizona, and the sleazy politics around it all. She missed our own ADC's Charles Ryan's stint with the Iraqi prisons, but otherwise did an excellent job of pointing out the connections between private prisons in AZ, Governor Brewer, and SB 1070. Frankly, it's criminal. There's a good bit with Phoenix's Channel 5's Morgan Loew, too. Good job, Morgan, busting this open in the first place.

So, take 15 minutes to absorb this piece before you write or call the governor's office Friday about prison privatization (see post below). It really ties it all together. If you don't understand why some people are so outraged about SB 1070, you will after you watch this show.

(that's the sidewalk outside Arpaio's jail during our solidarity action with the 9 who chained themselves to the Capitol when the legislature passed SB 1070...)

Brewer can't say we didn't try to tell her.

Province apprehended. Who wants to be the next prison town?

Tracy Province was apprehended this morning in Wyoming without incident, looking nothing like his prison photo - it's a miracle and irony he was recognized at a church. Hopefully he will never be allowed to kill again. McCluskey and Welch are still out there someplace, and believed to have left the Yellowstone area. I've heard no news yet to suggest that any insiders or other accomplices have been arrested.


Based on the kinds of Google searches hitting this site in the past week, it appears as if a lot of citizens across the country are re-considering the wisdom of community leaders who have collaborated with other entities to convince them that a nice little prison in the hills or desert would be good for their town. Here's a little something more for you to consider: if you only want to lock away people who have been consumed by poverty or addiction or snared in desperate efforts to survive and don't mean anyone else any harm, then what is wrong with you? If someone is safe enough to be in minimum security prison - or a family detention center - why build the prison in the first place?


I endorse the proposal that we take that $25,000 or more/year Americans pay to brutalize each "desirable" prisoner, and invest in housing, health care and education on the outside instead - not industries and politicians guaranteed to profit from more crime, greed, and fear. They just promote public policies and celebrate ideologies that breed more sociopaths in our midst who think it's alright to exploit the vulnerabilities of others to their own advantage. They're among the worst offenders we have, and are already trying to figure out how to use this escape to make migrants, misfits and the mentally ill appear more dangerous than they are so we'll keep shelling out protection money for more prisons - which does very little, as you see, to keep the rest of us safe and free.


With more investment in building communities and restoring lives, we can then focus our energies on how to disempower and contain the most destructive and violent people among us who are truly determined to hurt anyone who gets in their way - whether or not we've thought to criminalize their methods yet...

ASPC-Kingman escape: Aryan Brotherhood surprise.

The headline says a lot. Here's another link to a long article for those who need more - I don't. This country - especially this state - has a lot of white supremacists on our hands who don't hesitate to hurt anyone of any race or creed who gets in their path, some of whom are lawmakers, not lawbreakers. I hope these killers get caught before they take out anyone else, but we have a lot more work to do than taking them down if we're going to build a just society.

I just keep wondering why their racist gang affiliation didn't tip anyone at the AZ Department of Corrections off that Province and McCluskey were high risk. How reliable is the person or system that ranks a white supremacist prison gang member as a medium security risk and gives them a prized job handling dogs? Truly decent people inside die waiting for assignments like that - someone working for MTC or the ADC had their backs in more ways than one. Both institutions better give up the "model prisoner" line of defense, because the truth about them just keeps getting worse.

Anyway, since I'm going to try to keep my focus on the bigger picture and am just one person, don't look here for the latest on the escapees - especially if you think you're in their path.

Heads up Yellowstone Campers: ASPC-Kingman escape.

Police: Arizona escapees may be in Yellowstone area

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 8, 2010

(CNN) -- Authorities believe two Arizona prison escapees and their alleged accomplice may be in the Yellowstone National Park area of Montana and Wyoming, based on recent information, the U.S. Marshals Service said Sunday.

John Charles McCluskey, 45, and Tracy Province, 42, are described as armed and dangerous. They have been at large since fleeing an Arizona prison on July 30. A third escaped inmate, Daniel Renwick, 35, was arrested the day after the escape in Rifle, Colorado, where he got in a shootout with police.

McCluskey was serving 15 years for attempted second-degree murder and other charges. Province was serving a life sentence for murder and armed robbery.

A female accomplice helped Province, McCluskey and Renwick, escape by throwing cutting tools over a prison fence, according to Charles Ryan, director of Arizona's Department of Corrections.

Authorities have identified the suspected accomplice as Casslyn Mae Welch, 43. Welch is McCluskey's cousin and fiancee, CNN affiliate KTVK reported.

"Information developed within the past two days indicated the escapees may be hiding in the Yellowstone Park area within Montana and Wyoming," U.S. Marshals said in a statement Sunday. "It is believed Tracy Province has separated from John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch."

A U.S. Marshals team from Arizona has been in the Yellowstone Park area since Sunday morning, spokesman Thomas Henman said. The team is working with U.S. marshals in Montana and Wyoming, as well as the National Parks Service.

Henman wouldn't divulge the source of the information that has led authorities to Yellowstone, but said it is believed to be very credible. Although the case was featured on "America's Most Wanted" Saturday night, the information did not come from a viewer, Henman said.

A $40,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the escapees' arrest, Henman said.

The New Mexico Department of Public Safety said Saturday police have forensic evidence linking Province and McCluskey to a couple found slain in New Mexico last week. Two burned bodies were found in a camper Wednesday in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, according to Peter Olson, spokesman for the department.

New Mexico police have yet to positively identify the burned bodies, but believe they are Linda and Gary Haas of Oklahoma, whose truck was found 120 miles away in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to Olson. He would not elaborate on the nature of the forensic evidence.

Earlier Saturday, authorities arrested McCluskey's mother and charged her with aiding the escape. Claudia Washburn, 68, was arrested in Jakes Corner, Arizona, and faces charges of conspiracy to facilitate escape and hindering prosecution, Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Henman told CNN.

Washburn, who is Welch's aunt, allegedly provided "financial and other aid" to McCluskey, Province and Welch. A search warrant was executed, and Washburn was being held on $250,000 bond at the Gila County Jail in Globe, Arizona, the U.S. Marshals said.

In an interview with CNN Arizona affiliate KTVK, Washburn's husband said that he'd shoot his stepson McCluskey if he saw him again.

"I told the U.S Marshals I haven't got that long to live," Jack Washburn said. "(I'd) serve my time."

"You think you're Bonnie and Clyde," he continued, referring to the two escapees. " You're not. No comparison."

After the break, the inmates and the accomplice abducted two truck drivers at gunpoint on Interstate 40 outside of Kingman, Arizona, and hijacked their 18-wheeler, according to the Mohave County sheriff's department in Kingman. The truck drivers and the rig were released five hours later in Flagstaff, about 135 miles to the east.

The fugitives were later believed to be driving a 2002 silver Volkswagen Jetta purchased last Saturday in Phoenix. They were later spotted on a security camera in a bank inside a grocery store in Goodyear, Arizona, according to Barrett Marson, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Henman said Sunday he didn't know what transportation the escapees were thought to have taken to the Yellowstone area.

CNN's Chuck Johnston contributed to this report.

Medium security killers still loose: ASPC Kingman Escape.

This is a fascinating article from Kingman. Here, by the way, is the ADC record of a state-held, non-violent prisoner (who was given a ludricrous 52 years) and is currently assessed as a medium security risk. His threat level is such because he's a jailhouse lawyer, not because he's really "dangerous". Now compare him to Province and McCluskey. The ranking system seems designed to protect the prisons first, not the communities who host them.

So, if you're entertaining CCA, GEO, MTC, Corplan, or Cornell in your neighborhood thinking they'll bring good jobs and being told that your new prison is just going have non-violent offenders, forget it (check out these guys out if I missed your local prison profiteer). The pay is dirt, the security is poor, and rehab - at both state and private facilities - is really a thing of the past. We may put more into them than we do for education here, but Arizona prisons are just warehouses where they throw the vulnerable in with the deadly, evidently spending our resources covering their own asses, not protecting ours. They sure aren't spending it on their prisoners' well-being...

117 killers housed in Golden Valley

Erin Taylor

Kingman Daily Miner Staff Reporter

8/8/2010 6:01:00 AM

KINGMAN - Johnathan Doody was found guilty 17 years ago of killing nine people at a Phoenix-area Buddhist Temple. The victims were robbed, lined up and shot execution-style.

Doody was one of two men convicted in the 1991 killings, which remains one of the worst mass-murders in Arizona history. Since June 30, he has been housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Kingman in Golden Valley.

As of the end of June, there were 117 murderers serving out life sentences at the Kingman prison. Of those, 57 have been convicted of first-degree murder.

Statewide, some 1,400 inmates are serving time for murder in medium-security facilities. Of those, 796 are serving life sentences.

Much of the anger over last week's prison escape came from the fact that the three men who escaped were all violent offenders convicted of either murder or attempted murder. Residents said that when the prison was built in 2004, they were told that it would house only DUI and other low-level offenders. That belief was officially debunked after it was learned that the three inmates who escaped more than a week ago all share violent criminal histories.

John McCluskey was serving a 15-year sentence for attempted murder after shooting at someone through the window of a Mesa home in 2009. He reportedly told police that he would have killed the man, along with the arresting police officer, if his shotgun hadn't jammed.

Tracy Province was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and armed robbery after stabbing a man 51 times in 1991.

Daniel Renwick, the inmate captured in Colorado two days after the escape, was serving two consecutive 22-year sentences for shooting and killing his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and her father in 2000.

The Kingman facility, which opened in 2004, is one of four privately-run prisons in the state. The Arizona Department of Corrections operates 10 others.

The Utah-based Management and Training Corporation operates the Kingman and Marana prisons.

The Kingman prison is classified as a minimum-to-medium security facility. Many individuals are unaware that someone serving out a sentence for murder can be classified as medium custody, a practice common not only in Arizona but also in neighboring states California and New Mexico, according to Barrett Marson, public information officer for the ADOC.

Marson said that it's possible for inmates to work their way down the levels of custody based on good behavior and how many years of a sentence have been served.

According to the ADOC, inmates sentenced to death are classified as "maximum" and can never reduce levels.

Inmates sentenced to life must serve at least two years in maximum custody, then three years in "close" custody before they are eligible for medium custody. Close custody is one level below maximum and just above medium custody and is reserved for those inmates who pose a high risk to prison staff.

Those serving life sentences can never be reduced to below the medium custody level.

Inmates with more than five years to serve or those with a felony sex conviction can also never be placed below medium custody.

Inmates who have been determined to be a security threat are classified as maximum custody.

Marson said there is a specific department at ADOC devoted to determining when and how an inmate is reclassified from level to level, but he didn't know if a representative from that department meets with the inmate in person, or if the process is all done through paperwork.

Only minimum-custody inmates are allowed to work outside of the prison on community work crews. Medium-security inmates are not allowed to leave the facility but can participate in other programs, such as the Friends From the Pen dog-training program, in which both McCluskey and Province worked.

It is believed that the escaped inmates took advantage of the unlocked doors between their dormitory and the outside dog run used for the dogs in the program. McCluskey's fiancée, 44-year-old Casslyn Welch, was waiting in a getaway vehicle and tossed the men a pair of wire cutters over the perimeter fence.

ADOC Director Charles Ryan has said he suspects that "lax security" on the part of prison personnel contributed to the escape.

Ryan met Wednesday with MTC officials.

"We have been assured that MTC is committed to addressing and correcting the security deficiencies that contributed to the escape," he said in a news release. "An Arizona Department of Corrections security team is at the private prison conducting a comprehensive operational evaluation."

Attempts made by the Miner to speak with Ryan have been unsuccessful.

The officials will meet again next week. MTC has deferred comment on the escape to ADOC.

Province and McCluskey are still believed to be with Welch. Marson said authorities believe the trio have left Arizona and are headed east.

As for Doody, he is appealing his 281-year sentence. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year threw out his confession on grounds it was involuntary and forwarded the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it awaits ruling.

Kingman escapees suspected in N.M. murders.

This is one profoundly sad and gruesome answer to my question about whose expense the profit for the private prison industry comes at. For those just tuning in, I'm including the background to this AP story, as narrated in an e-mail by my friend from the Private Corrections Working Group, where you can find more information about the for-profit prison industry. They have me on a list-serve to keep us posted about these things. Even the people of Kingman and the families of these men's victims can't seem to count on the industry or the state to inform them.

Thanks for the heads-up, Frank. Look out America - they're still on the run.

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This is unbelievably tragic.

The MTC for-profit prison in Golden Valley (near Kingsburg) Arizona had an escape on Friday, July 30th, some time after 4:00 p.m. Although alarms signaling a cut fence went off, an incredibly brutal trio, two murderers and an attempted murderer, were not missed until the 9:00 p.m. count. The prison further delayed notifying the Mojave County Sheriff's office until 10:19. MTC only notified the state Department of Corrections at 11:37 p.m.

A perimeter guard had come upon the escapees' woman confederate, Casslyn Mae Welch, who is thought to have tossed wire cutters over the fence. She diverted the guard's attention from the escape by asking for directions to Flagstaff.

Sometime around midnight Friday, two escapees John (Charles) McCluskey, Tracy Province and Welch hijacked a semi with two drivers and drove it to Flagstaff, 150 miles away, arriving around 5:00 a.m. on Saturday. They left the terrified drivers unharmed and fled via unknown means.

Early on Saturday morning, I was notified by a reporter who had heard about the escape from a family member of another inmate. She had searched the Internet in vain for any mention of the incredibly brutal escapees. It wasn't until over 12 hours after the men fled that some broadcast media began to pick it up on their websites.

The neighbors of the prison in Golden Valley and Kingsburg were not notified, many not becoming aware that they might still have the escapees in their midst until seeing it on television on Sunday morning.

The third escapee, Daniel Renwick, who had split off, was captured after a chase and gun battle in Rifle, Colorado on Sunday.

The Payson, Arizona mother of McCluskey, one of the pair who remained free was arrested today for her alleged part in the escape. She is the maternal aunt of Welch, who was engaged to marry McCluskey, her first cousin.

Meanwhile, the three continued on through apparent changes of vehicles to New Mexico where they kidnapped and murdered a 61-year-old couple from Tecumseh, Oklahoma, stealing their car and abandoning it in Albuquerque, and cremating their bodies in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, near highway intersections to Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

No further information has been received about what direction they may have taken from there.

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Arizona prison escapees linked to N.M. killings

By AMANDA LEE MYERS

The Associated Press (As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune)

August 7, 2010 09:26PM

Phoenix • Two men who escaped from a private Arizona prison and a woman thought to have helped them have been linked to the investigation of a couple’s killing in New Mexico, authorities said Saturday.

New Mexico State Police spokesman Peter Olson said Tracy Province, John McCluskey and Casslyn Welch were linked through forensics but he declined to provide specifics.

He declined to say whether police believe the three were responsible for the killings, adding that “we don’t know how involved they are.”

Province, McCluskey and Daniel Renwick escaped from the medium-security Arizona State Prison near Kingman on July 30 after authorities say 44-year-old Casslyn Welch of Mesa threw wire cutters over the perimeter fence. Renwick was arrested in Colorado on Aug. 1. The prison is managed by Management & Training Corp. of Centerville.

The badly burned skeletal remains of Linda and Gary Haas, both 61, of Tecumseh, Okla., were found in a charred camper on Wednesday morning on a remote ranch in Santa Rosa in eastern New Mexico.

Olson said a car belonging to the couple was found 100 miles west in Albuquerque on Wednesday afternoon.

The Arizona Department of Corrections says the three men escaped by cutting a hole in the prison’s perimeter fence and later kidnapping two semi-truck drivers at gunpoint and using the big rig to flee. The group left the drivers unharmed in the truck at a stop just off Interstate 40 in Flagstaff and then fled.

Province was serving a life sentence for murder and robbery out of Pima County. McCluskey was serving a 15-year prison term for attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm out of Maricopa County. Renwick had been serving a 22-year sentence for second-degree murder.

A nationwide search was under way for McCluskey, Province and Welch, and “America’s Most Wanted” planned to air a segment about the group. The group may be using a 1997 platinum gold Nissan Sentra with Arizona license plate 6-2-0-P-F-V.

Thomas Henman, supervisory deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Phoenix, said the group should be considered “extremely dangerous,” and urged the public to be very careful if they spot them and call authorities immediately.

“These are hardened criminals, and they’re armed,” he said. “And the longer they are out there, the more desperate they become and the more dangerous they become.”

He said the Marshals Service is working feverishly to find the group.

“Eventually they will be caught,” he said. “Obviously we want that to be sooner rather than later.”

Meanwhile Saturday, the Marshals Service arrested McCluskey’s mother in Jakes Corner south of Payson, Ariz., after authorities suspect she gave financial and other types of support to help McCluskey, Province and Welch on their flight from authorities.

Claudia Washburn, 68, was arrested at her home and place of business on charges of conspiracy to commit escape, hindering prosecution and facilitation to commit escape.