Fugitives still held in Grants jail

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Lemuel Martinez, district attorney for the 13th Judicial District, which includes Grants, announced at a news conference Thursday afternoon that two fugitives who are in custody in the Cibola County Detention Center, and who allegedly escaped from a Kansas prison were indicted by the grand jury on Wednesday.

Steve A. Foster, 26, and Jesse L. Bell, 33, both of El Dorado, Kans., were indicted on charges of felon in possession of a firearm, receiving stolen property and resisting or evading an officer.

Bell was also indicted on aggravated assault on a peace officer, and tampering with evidence.

The two men allegedly escaped from the El Dorado Correctional Facility in El Dorado with the assistance of a former female Corrections Officer Amber Goff.

Goff’s charge is from Kansas and is aiding in the escape of a prisoner. She signed extradition papers on Tuesday. Cibola County Magistrate Court Presiding Judge Jackie Fisher set Nov. 16 as the date Butler County Sheriff’s deputies had to pick her up and return her to Kansas.

On Thursday morning both Ford and Bell signed extradition papers and had their attorneys present, John Bezzeg and Gary Fernandez, but no date was set by Fisher,

“I did not set a date because district attorney Lemuel Martinez is working on prosecuting them (Bell, Ford) here, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Fisher told the Independent after the hearing.

Following his news conference Martinez told the Independent he is in contact with interim U.S. Attorney Larry Gomez about who will prosecute the pair and on what charges.

He said an announcement will be made at noon on Saturday in Albuquerque as to what agency or multiple agencies will be prosecuting the two men and on what charges,.

He said there could be additional federal charges filed against Bell and Ford, but could not say what without discussing it with Gomez.

On Monday Bell and Ford had local bonds of $25,000 and $50,000 respectively, in connection with the events of Oct. 31 in Grants, revoked and a no bond hold was placed on them by Fisher in a hearing in Magistrate Court.
Shots fired

The three were in Grants early in the morning on Oct. 31 and Grants police responded to a call to dispatch about men looking in car windows of an apartment complex.

While officers were placing Bell in handcuffs about 1:30 a.m., they were fired upon by Ford, who shot at them four times.

A Cibola County Deputy Sheriff who responded to a “shots fired” call by the two Grants officers found Ford and arrested him at gunpoint while he was lying on the ground spread eagled.

Goff was arrested about 3:30 a.m., sitting in a Ford Taurus, which the trio had rented from Enterprise Car rentals in Oklahoma City a couple of days previously.

The trio had three handguns, ammunition and a road atlas. All the handguns were reported stolen.

If prosecuted and convicted on local charges alone, Bell could serve up to one day short of four years in state prison. Ford faces up to nearly eight and a half years in state prison.

Martinez said a decision on whether to prosecute Bell and Foster locally first, or allow them to be extradited to Kansas to serve the remainder of their sentences there and then bring them back to Cibola County for prosecution, has not yet been made.

Prior to this alleged escape Bell was due to be released by the Kansas Department of Corrections sometime in 2021.

Ford was due to be released this month, however there was a letter of detainment by Missouri for him to serve 20 years in that state’s department of corrections meaning he would not have been eligible for release until 2027.

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