Inmate Eludes Search Teams
Authorities combing 17,000 acres of woods and marshy creek beds for an escaped death-row inmate have shifted their search, hoping it will force the convicted killer to make a move.
Martin Gurule escaped Friday and has eluded capture by more than 500 people searching the Ellis I and Estelle prison units near Huntsville.
Most of the focus had been near the fence Gurule clambered over, but the prison system's executive director said the search strategy has changed.
"We're going to discontinue most of the direct pressure within the containment area," Wayne Scott said Tuesday. "If he sees the pressure diminished, he may decide it's time to move."
Gurule, 29, scaled a pair of 10-foot fences topped with razor wire and fled into foggy darkness in the first escape from death row in Texas since 1934. Six other condemned inmates stopped when guards opened fire.
Gurule was sentenced to death for shooting Minas "Mike" Piperis during a 1992 robbery at a Corpus Christi restaurant. He also was charged with killing restaurant worker Anthony Staton, but that case never went to trial.
Sergeant Phil Cunningham helped put Gurule in prison. Cunningham said on CBS This Morning that Gurule should be considered a very dangerous man. "Martin portrays himself as a very likeable guy," he said. "He comes across very smooth, very charismatic. But he's very cold, very cool, very calculating, obviously deadly."
Also speaking on CBS This Morning, CBS News Consultant and former FBI official James Kallstrom said that Gurule's capture will depend on how far the death row inmate was able to get from the prison. "If he's in the woods near the prison, I think surely it's just a matter of time before he's caught. If he's gotten to a vehicle and he's leaving the scene, then it's a different situation."
On Tuesday, prison chairman Allan Polunsky suspended the "work capable" program, which allowed death row inmates to work at two stations within the prison and gave them unlimited movement in and out of their cells. A special committee will determine if the program should continue.
Gurule and the six other inmates were eligible for the program.
Authorities relying on tracking dogs were aided Tuesday by a helicopter equipped with a thermal-imaging unit, capable of detecting and identifying heat sources.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported Wednesday that Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez and one of his deputies, Mark Skurka, have taken extra security precautions since Gurule's escape. Both men were involved in prosecuting Gurule.
"It concerns me that he's on the loose, for Carlos, for myself, for everybody," Skurka said. "I think he's a pretty dangerous individual."
Reported By Jim Axelrod