New details emerge in capture of fugitives

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — New information has surfaced in the capture of two Kansas prison escapees and a female accomplice early Wednesday morning in Grants, including an eyewitness account and results of a search warrant on the Ford Taurus the three used in the escape.

Grants Police Chief Mary Vigil said he has presented the case to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and expects officials from that agency to take on part of the case.

Steven A. Ford and Jesse L. Bell escaped from the El Dorado Correctional Facility, El Dorado, Kan., Sunday night with the assistance of Amber Goff, a former corrections officer who worked at the prison and is reportedly involved with Ford.

The two men were arrested shortly after 1:30 a.m., during which Ford allegedly took four shots at police officers who were putting Bell into handcuffs.

Goff was arrested two hours later sitting in a Ford Taurus, a rental car from Oklahoma City, on a street just a few hundred feet east of the Vista Mesa Villa apartment complex, 1131 Mesa Drive, where the incident took place.

Three stolen handguns were discovered by police — each suspect had one — and a .357 magnum was found in the car.

Late Thursday Grants Police Detective Sgt. James Spidle told the Independent that a search warrant for the Ford Taurus was signed by District Judge Camille Martinez-Olguin about 3:30 p.m., and then the car was searched.

The car was seized for evidence and Spidle said he will contact investigators from Butler County and the ATF to determine whether either agency wants the car because of its use in carrying firearms and crossing state lines.

Blood was found in the car, Spidle said. One or both of the escapees was cut on razor wire while escaping.

“We found a road atlas, ammunition for all three stolen handguns, female clothing and we swabbed for DNA,” Spidle said.

Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield, of El Dorado, Kan., told the Independent Thursday she would be patient awaiting whatever decision 13th Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez decided to do in charging and prosecuting the escapees in Grants.

“I will cooperate with every law enforcement agency and the district attorney’s office in whatever decisions they make,” she said.

“When we get them back to Kansas — whether sooner or later — I will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law, charge them with everything we can and stack those charges and sentences consecutively onto the end of their current sentences,” she said.

Goff has no local charges filed against her, just the felony warrant from Kansas for her role in acting as an accomplice in helping the two men escape.

Satterfield said sentences could be between 15-20 years for each of the two male escapees if convicted and about a year for Goff, who apparently did not have a precious criminal record.

Martinez said he is consulting with 13th Judicial District Chief Deputy Attorney Ted Howden, in Grants, and will make a decision on whether to charge the men and prosecute them here, including possibly taking the cases to the grand jury, or to allow them to be extradited back to Kansas.

“Either way, they will face the criminal justice system,” he said.

A resident who lived in one of the two apartment buildings where the incident took place said she heard shots being fired and saw police with one person in handcuffs. She said she saw a second man lying on the ground outside a chain-link fence a few feet east of Dumpsters at the apartment building facing Los Alamitos Middle School on Mt. Taylor Ave.

“I was scared, I didn’t know what was going on,” she said.

“Shooting at police is very serious and not only endangers them but the citizens of Cibola County and all of New Mexico,” Martinez said.

“New Mexico is the second or third-highest state in the nation having shots fired at or hitting law enforcement officers,” he said.

He said the district attorney’s office is waiting on “charging documents” from the Butler County Attorney’s Office so his office can file a fugitive complaint in court.

“A fugitive complaint is presented to the judge. The judge then sets bond, or holds them without bond,” he said.

If the judge sets bond and they meet it, they are released until their hearing and trial, he said.

Currently, all three are in custody in the Cibola County Jail facing local felony charges and felony fugitive warrants from Kansas.

Cibola County Magistrate Court Presiding Judge Jackie Fisher has set bond on Ford of $150,000 and $25,000 on Bell.

They have a preliminary hearing set for Magistrate Court on Nov. 13.

Felony warrants indicting the two men from Kansas request no bond, but the pair were seen in Magistrate Court prior to those documents being received in Grants.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.