Goff goes to Kansas
Escapees face Grants charges before extradition

Amber Goff, a former corrections officer at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas was taken into custody by Butler County Sheriff's deputies, WEl Dorado, Kans., Friday and flown back to that state to face one felony charge of aiding in the escape of two inmates, Steve Ford and Jesse Bell. [Courtesy Photo]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Steven A. Foster and Jesse L. Butler, escaped prisoners from a Kansas prison and now in custody in the Cibola County Detention Center, will be prosecuted and sentenced in Grants before they will be extradited to Kansas.

That decision was announced in Albuquerque Saturday by 13th Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez with Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield, El Dorado, Kan., present.

“After they are prosecuted and sentenced in Cibola County, they will be returned to Kansas and serve their remaining and additional sentences there,” Martinez said.

“We will file a packet of information requesting detainment of both men to be returned to New Mexico to serve time from their sentences here after they have completed their sentences in Kansas,” he said.

Both men were captured in Grants on Oct. 31 after escaping, along with a woman, Amber Goff, of El Dorado, Okla., who was a former corrections officer at the El Dorado Correctional Facility where Bell and Foster were inmates and who allegedly helped them escape. The two men were indicted Wednesday by the 13th Judicial District Grand Jury and Goff was extradited to Kansas on Friday in the custody of Butler County Sheriff's deputies to face one felony charge of aiding in the escape of prisoners.

Both men were indicted on charges of felons in possession of a firearm, receiving stolen property and resisting arrest.

Foster was also indicted on aggravated assault on a peace officer, with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence.

The men had three stolen handguns prompting the receiving stolen property indictments and Foster shot at police four times while Bell was being placed in custody. Those actions prompted the assault indictment.

Martinez said Bell and Foster will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if the maximum sentences are handed down by 13th Judicial District Judge Camille Martinez-Olguin, Bell will receive one day short of four years and Foster could receive nearly eight-and-a-half years in state prison.

When the two escaped, Foster was due to be released this month but had a detainment request from Missouri to serve 20 years there instead of being released. Any prison time sentenced for Foster will have to take a back seat to that request.

Bell was due to be released in 2021 on previous convictions in Kansas.

After sentencing in district court in Grants, both men will face additional escape charges in Kansas which could add several years to their time before Missouri or New Mexico gets them to serve time in the state prison here.

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