Escapees’ bond revoked
DA honors request from Kansas officials to keep suspects jailed

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Escaped Kansas convicts Jesse L. Bell and Steven A. Ford, who were caught in Grants while casing cars in an apartment complex parking lot and shooting at police last week, had their bonds revoked in Cibola County Magistrate Court Monday afternoon.

Amber Goff, a former corrections officer at the prison where the men escaped and who is their accused accomplice was not present and her case was not discussed.

Presiding Judge Jackie Fisher heard a motion by the 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office Monday afternoon and changed the men’s bond status from $50,000 and $25,000 respectively, to no bond, in line with a no-bond hold request from the Butler County Attorney’s Office in El Dorado, Kans., where they were inmates prior to the escape.

Assistant District Attorney Peter S. Burns told Fisher the district attorney’s office wanted to change the bond to protect the local charges and to be “in line” with the no-bond request from Kansas.

Bell and Ford were brought into a sparsely populated courtroom, with only four law enforcement officers and two other people, in their two-tone horizontal dark and light gray prison uniforms. Both men’s hands were cuffed to their waist and their ankles were shackled forcing them to shuffle to their seats.

Early in the proceedings, Fisher asked that both men be moved from sitting in jury chairs on the east side of the courtroom to where defense attorneys and clients would normally sit, in front of the bench.

Neither man was represented by local attorneys John Bezzeg and Gary Fernandez, who had been previously appointed as their public defenders.

Bell spoke up saying he and Ford had no objection to their bond status being changed and asked for a copy of the local charges against them.

Both Burns and Deputy District Attorney Randolph M. Collins expressed concern that they would like to be involved in any extradition hearing the two men would have and Fisher said they would.

District Attorney Lemuel Martinez told the Independent late Monday afternoon: “I think this (no bond) is exactly what we wanted to happen to these two men who were caught while shooting at law enforcement officers.

“We can now move forward on filing fugitive complaints against them and take them to grand jury on Wednesday,” he said.

Both men had a Magistrate Court preliminary hearing set for Nov. 13, but that will be vacated once a grand jury indictment is handed down, Martinez said.

Martinez said fugitive complaints would be filed by Tuesday afternoon in both men’s cases, as well as Goff’s.

The law enforcement officers were present in the courtroom for the hearing, which took about 12 minutes: Grants Police Sgts. Jason Fank and James Spidle, Grants Police Officer Jesse Nieto and Cibola County Deputy Sheriff Jesse Terrazas. All four were involved in the capture and interrogation of Bell, Ford and Goff.

The incident
Bell and Ford were arrested in Grants at the Vista Mesa Villa apartments 1131 Mesa Ave., shortly after 1:30 a.m., Oct. 31.

While Bell was being placed in custody, Ford allegedly shot four times at officers and was found moments later and arrested by Terrazas who was responding to the Grants police officers’ call for help with a “shots fired” call through police radios.

Goff was arrested two hours later in a Ford Taurus, just a block or two away from the scene.

The Taurus was searched Friday by Spidle and another officer resulting in finding a road atlas, female clothing and ammunition for three stolen handguns, which the trio had in their possession, of which one was used to shoot at police by Ford.

The men escaped from El Dorado Correctional Facility in El Dorado, Kans., with Goff allegedly aiding them. Butler County Attorney, Jan Satterfield, El Dorado, said she intends to throw the book at the three and have as many changes and sentences to stack up consecutively.

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.

Charges against the trio are:

• Bell — Local charges of felon in possession of a firearm, evading/fleeing a police officer and possession of stolen property (handgun); Kansas: Felony escape from a prison.
• Ford: Local charges of assault with intent to commit a violent felony (shooting at police), tampering with evidence (ditching the weapon), felon in possession of a firearm and evading/fleeing police; Kansas: Felony escape from a prison.
• Goff: Kansas: Aiding and abetting felony escape from a prison.

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