Judge throws out statements made by escaped inmate accused of killing Tecumseh couple

A local newspaper reports that U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera had excluded statements made by John Charles McCluskey to investigators because officers improperly interrogated him after he invoked his right to an attorney.

McCluskey was one of three prisoners who authorities say escaped in July 2010 from a medium-security prison near Kingman, Ariz., and went on a multi-state crime spree.

He is charged with carjacking and murder in the deaths of Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla., whose remains were found with their burned-out camping trailer on a ranch in eastern New Mexico.

McCluskey was sentenced to 43 years in prison on Arizona charges for breaking out of prison and abducting two truck drivers whose big rig was used as a getaway vehicle.

Prosecutors said McCluskey escaped with fellow inmates Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick on July 30, 2010, with the help of Casslyn Welch, who threw cutting tools onto the prison grounds and supplied the men with guns, money and a vehicle.

Police say McCluskey, Province and Welch ended up in New Mexico. Inmate Daniel Renwick, who made off alone in the vehicle Welch had provided, was captured a day later after a shootout in Colorado.

Welch and McCluskey were arrested nearly three weeks later at an Arizona campsite after a U.S. Forest Service employee spotted their vehicle. Province had separated from the couple and was arrested in Wyoming on Aug. 9, 2010.