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| Texas Escaped Convict Captured |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 09/17/2001 |
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A convicted killer who escaped from a Texas prison earlier this week was captured Friday in Mississippi, authorities said. 'We got the guy,' Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. 'We have confirmed his identity through fingerprints.' Harold Laird, 26, was arrested about 7:30 a.m. by a constable in Forrest County, Miss., which includes Hattiesburg. He was in a pickup truck with Georgia plates that had been reported stolen from Slidell, La. The truck was parked outside an abandoned grocery store. Laird, serving a life sentence, had fled the Texas prison system's Stiles Unit just outside Beaumont before dawn Wednesday in another truck he had stolen. Hattiesburg is about 300 miles northeast of Beaumont. The concern about Laird had been heightened because inside the original stolen truck was a .22-caliber rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. Fitzgerald, however, said no weapon was found on Laird when he was apprehended and the convict, who has a history of violent behavior toward authorities, surrendered peacefully. Texas authorities would be seeking extradition to have Laird returned, Fitzgerald said. A nationwide alert had been posted for Laird. Authorities said he got out of his cell through a hole he had widened around the fluorescent light fixture in the ceiling. Laird was 17 when he was sentenced to life - and no parole prospects for 35 years - for killing a man in East Harris County in a January 1992 beating and shooting that left two people dead. Laird previously tried to escape from the Harris County Jail and from another Texas prison, the Coffield Unit in East Texas. Because of his behavior he was locked up 23 hours a day with only one hour for recreation alone. Laird tried to fashion a dummy in his cell to hide his disappearance. Officers checking on him discovered him missing about 6 a.m. Wednesday. |
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