Sheriff officials say 4 or 5 deputies had opportunities to stop the inmate, who is still at large
A twice-condemned murderer continued eluding a huge manhunt overnight as Harris County officials began investigating how he talked his way past at least four deputies and walked free from the County Jail.
Some relatives of Charles Victor Thompson’s victims went into hiding or accepted police guards as they awaited word Friday on the search for a man who dubbed himself the “Chuckster killer” and was said to have hatched two murder-for-hire plots from behind bars.
“He can make people believe he is the most innocent man in the world,” said Wynona Donaghy, whose daughter Thompson killed in 1998 with a bullet in the face. “If somebody is helping him, they don’t realize how dangerous he is.”
Four or five deputies — and possibly more — had opportunities to stop Thompson before he walked out of the jail at 1200 Baker on Thursday afternoon, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Lt. John Martin said Thompson, 35, of Tomball, encountered deputies in at least three spots in the downtown jail as he made his way to freedom.
“This was 100 percent human error; that’s the most frustrating thing about it,” Martin said. “There were multiple failures. There were several points where it could have been prevented.”
The Sheriff’s Department launched a sweeping internal investigation into how Thompson managed to dupe the jail staff and slip through what are supposed to be tight security measures.
Martin said disciplinary action, if any is warranted, will be taken only after the probe is complete.
Several questions
Authorities also are trying to determine how Thompson smuggled back to his cell the civilian clothes he wore in his final court appearance, when he was sentenced to death on Oct. 28 for the second time. He somehow changed into them on Thursday before walking out about 3:30 p.m., Martin said.
All jail employees who were working when Thompson escaped remained on the job Friday, officials said. While the department may not have all the answers now, it will have them soon, said Chief Deputy Danny Billingsley.
“As a department, we’re embarrassed about this,” Billingsley said. “We’re going to find out what happened and we’re going to fix it.”
He added that the jail was fully staffed and manpower was not a factor in the escape.
Thompson already had spent more than six years on Texas’ death row for the 1998 shootings of his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, and her new boyfriend, Darren Cain, 30, of Spring. He was brought to Houston recently for a new sentencing trial after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his constitutional right to counsel was violated when prosecutors in his 1999 trial played a recording of Thompson discussing a murder-for-hire plot.
In the second sentencing trial, a jury last week reaffirmed his death sentence. One juror said she had been a death-penalty opponent, but was so horrified by the evidence that she changed her stance.
Thompson was still in the County Jail when he received a visit from an attorney at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, Martin said. He said the condemned killer was escorted from his cell to one of the locked rooms where prisoners talk with their attorneys through glass windows.
The lawyer, whom sheriff’s officials would not name, was not Thompson’s attorney of record. Martin was not sure about the reason for the visit, but said the attorney is not suspected of aiding the escape.
Thompson and his visitor were separated by a window with “literally a slit at the bottom,” through which nothing thicker than a sheet of paper could be passed, Martin said. He said Thompson’s hands were cuffed in front so he could sign paperwork, if necessary.
The visitation booths do not have surveillance cameras, Martin said, and deputies do not monitor the meetings. At some point, the attorney left but Martin remained in the booth. Martin was not sure whether Thompson was locked inside, as is required, but said he remained there for almost two hours. He came out in the khaki pants, dark-blue shirt and white tennis shoes that he wore on his last day in court, Martin said.
Left behind in the booth were his handcuffs and the orange jumpsuit typically worn by County Jail inmates. Investigators said they weren’t sure how Thompson got out of the cuffs. As he talked his way through security checkpoints, Thompson flashed some type of laminated identification card bearing his photograph. The card had a black strip on the back, similar to those on driver’s licenses.
He first approached a “floor control center,” where deputies control access between the secure side of the jail and the public area frequented by visitors, Martin said. Thompson told a deputy he was conducting an investigation for the state Attorney General’s Office.
Fooling deputies
The deputy told Thompson he could not exit from the second floor and would need to go to the first floor, Martin said. Thompson rode down in an elevator within the secured area and went to another control booth, where he told another deputy he was with the Attorney General’s Office, Martin said.
That deputy and another officer asked why he didn’t have a Sheriff’s Department security tag. Martin said Thompson told them he had entered the building through the tunnel from a jail across the street.
One deputy then took Thompson outside the secured area, into the lobby, Martin said. That area has surveillance cameras, he said, but they are not capable of recording.
“The inmate says, ‘My partner’s outside waiting on me. Let me run outside and tell him what’s going on. We’ll get this straightened out.’ Apparently, they allowed him to walk out,” Martin said.
The deputies waited briefly before realizing they had been duped.
Internal affairs investigators will interview all jail personnel who had contact with Thompson, he said. They also will question other inmates, in addition to visitors who were in the lobby.
No leg irons on Thompson
Death row inmates brought to the Harris County Jail to await court proceedings typically are kept in the highest-security cell blocks and are not placed in the general population, Martin said. They have their own cells and are allowed out only for short periods, but never while another inmate is out, he said.
Many death row inmates also are placed in leg irons when removed from their cells, but Thompson was not, Martin said.
The lack of restraints on an inmate with a violent record was an alarming oversight, said J.M. “Smokie” Phillips Jr., a former county deputy.
“This is an extraordinary escape,” said Phillips, a Precinct 7 constable’s captain and president of the Afro-American Sheriff’s Deputy League. “I would imagine someone would have to assist this guy.”
Investigators said they have found no evidence thus far that anyone helped Thompson.
The Sheriff’s Office and the multi-agency Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force received numerous leads about Thompson on Friday, Martin said. Dozens of Harris County criminal warrant division officers, along with U.S. Marshals and task force members, took part in the manhunt, and officers also were stationed at the homes of his victims’ families.
The Marshals Service announced a $10,000 reward, asking anyone with information to call the county warrant division at 713-755-6055 or the marshals at 800-336-0102.
Sheriff’s officials could not say how many escapes have occurred at the various County Jail facilities in recent years. But the Texas Commission on Jail Standards reports 19 bona fide escapes from jails in Harris County since 1995. That number does not include inmates who walked away after being granted trusty work privileges.
Chronicle reporter Kim Cobb contributed to this report.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3440344