Posted on 09/30/2007 8:09:11 AM PDT by LdSentinal
Two convicted murderers who escaped from the Daggett County Jail a week ago were apprehended in southwestern Wyoming Saturday night but not before one of them was shot in the abdomen, the U.S. Marshal's Office reported. Danny Martin Gallegos, 49, was shot after the Wyoming Highway Patrol spiked the tires of a reportedly stolen vehicle he and Juan Diaz-Arevalo, 27, were riding in on I-80 between Rock Springs and Green River, said Sweetwater sheriff's detective Dick Blust. The pair were armed when they got out of the vehicle, he said.
"There was gunfire, Gallegos was shot," Blust said.
At midnight, Gallegos was being prepared to be flown by medical helicopter to Salt Lake City for treatment, Blust said.
Diaz-Arevalo was taken into custody after a brief foot chase, Blust said. No law enforcement officers were injured.
"We're glad both of them are in custody," said Jim Thompson, chief deputy of the Marshal's Office's Utah District. "These are two people who needed to be back behind bars."
Gallegos and Diaz-Arevalo, both murderers sentenced to the Utah State Prison, escaped last Sunday from the Daggett County Jail, where they were incarcerated as part of a contract with the prison.
The pair are believed to have broken into a 72-year-old man's cabin in Daggett County, where they confronted the man with a knife, duct-taped his hands and feet, took the man's guns, demanded the keys to his Ford Explorer and asked for directions for the shortest way out, Blust said.
The bound man managed to hop to the road, where he was spotted by a couple in a passing vehicle, Thompson said.
At 9:30 p.m., a carjacking in Daggett County was reported, Blust said.
At 9:38 p.m., Sweetwater County deputies spotted the suspect vehicle at a Green River Pizza Hut, Blust said. A chase ensued on eastbound I-80, Blust said. The highway patrol then was able to spike the vehicle's tires in a construction area.
The vehicle stopped and the pair got out, armed with guns, Blust said. A Sweetwater sheriff's deputy shot Gallegos, he said.
The fugitives' capture late Saturday came shortly after the TV show "America's Most Wanted" aired a clip about their escape.
The manhunt involved the Utah Department of Corrections, Daggett County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Marshal's Office, U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming law enforcement and other agencies, and included ground searches, interviews and surveillance in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, Thompson said. Other steps included requesting border watches in the event the pair tried to slip into Mexico.
The Department of Corrections and the Marshal's Office were offering a $10,000 reward per fugitive, or $20,000 combined, for information leading to an arrest.
Interviews with jail inmates indicated the two men had been planning an escape for several weeks and seized the opportunity when it presented itself. It would appear there were no advance plans for anyone to pick them up, Supervisory U.S. Marshal Jim Phelps said.
Before the capture, Phelps said Danny Gallegos is familiar with the outdoors and could handle being at large in the wilderness.
"He was raised in a ranching environment, spent a lot of time in the mountains and would be capable of sustaining himself in the wilderness for some time," Phelps said.
Diaz-Arevalo, on the other hand, was a city kid.
Phelps said his agency and Department of Corrections investigators have "a great relationship" and have worked together successfully in other emergencies, most notably the apprehension of Curtis Michael Allgier in Salt Lake City on June 25.
Prosecutors say Allgier, who had been transported from the prison to a hospital for tests, grabbed the gun of corrections officer Stephen Anderson, fatally shot him, stole a car and led police on a wild chase until he was taken into custody at a fast food restaurant where Allgier had threatened patrons and workers.
"The Department of Corrections is to be commended on their responses because in both cases (Allgier and the two recent escapees); they immediately contacted numerous agencies, including the Marshal's Service," Phelps said. "They reached out for every available resource.
"We have some very grave concerns about the way Daggett County handled the notifications about the fact that an escape (involving Gallegos and Diaz-Arevalo) had occurred, especially since we house federal prisoners there," Phelps said.
After the escape Gallegos and Diaz-Arevalo were described "extremely dangerous," given their past criminal histories and their current situation. Both were serving under life sentences, "and the homicides in both cases were brutal and senseless," Phelps said.
In March 1990, Gallegos broke into the apartment of his former girlfriend, Stephanie Groves, 18, and hid in a closet.
Groves came home that night with two people, including Tammy Syndergaard, 18. While the three were watching a movie, Gallegos jumped from the closet and shot Syndergaard in the back of the head, killing her. The other two escaped.
The escape frightened members of Syndergaard's family. Her father, Jerry Syndergaard, said he exchanged words with Gallegos during court proceedings, and he said Gallegos threatened to kill him.
Diaz-Arevalo shot his girlfriend, Lindsey Fawson, 22, in the head on the evening of May 16, 2005, as she sat in her car parked in a Draper driveway. Her young son was in the back seat.
$20,000 combined, for information leading to an arrest.
Cut and dry......give every dime of it to the 72 yr old who they victimized.......
***Cut and dry......give every dime of it to the 72 yr old who they victimized.......***
Yes, YES! He surely gave them information leading to the arrest.
Wow! That's my old stomping grounds!
The fugitives made a mistake by heading to the northern plains where gun racks in pick-ups are a common sight and no law enforcement officer would worry about rules of engagement before using lethal force. They should have headed to San Francisco where the police are only reluctantly armed, PC rules are paramount and where they probably would have been given sanctuary by some liberal group.
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