Amway claim gave fugitives away, cabbie says

Witness: Fugitives showed no emotion
Motel guest Robin Penn, who was watching from across the parking lot, said Jennifer Hyatte was limping as she left the room with her hands up.

John Bolen, a supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus, said Jennifer Hyatte was concerned for her husband and asked officers not to hurt him.

"She was hollering in to him, 'Baby, baby, it'll be OK! It'll be OK!'" Bolen said.

George Hyatte then came out with his shirt pulled over his head, walked backward toward the stairwell, got on his knees and was handcuffed, Penn said.

"They really didn't show any emotion at all," Penn said.

Inside the couple's motel room, cans of Mountain Dew and Hawaiian Punch littered the nightstand, and bags of takeout food wrappers were on a desk. One of the two mattresses was pushed halfway off the box spring.

Authorities said they also recovered weapons.

Both suspects now in jail
George Hyatte was taken to the Franklin County jail, said John Bolen, a supervisor for the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus. Jennifer Hyatte was treated for the bullet wound to the leg, then taken to the jail early Thursday, police said.

The couple was expected to be brought back to Tennessee on warrants for first-degree murder in the death of Wayne "Cotton" Morgan, 56, authorities said.

Earlier Wednesday, outside a motel in Erlanger, authorities had tracked down a van the couple was believed to have used. The couple was gone, but authorities knew then that they were getting close.

Blood had been found in the motel room, and an employee at a nearby restaurant told federal agents she had given directions that day to a couple she later recognized as the fugitives.

Escape artist
George Hyatte, 34, had been in court to plead guilty to a robbery charge before the escape Tuesday. He was two years into a 35-year sentence for robbery and assault.

The escape was at least the fifth time he had gotten away from law enforcement officials between 1990 and 2002.

Terry Gilliam / AP The room at the America's Best Value Inn where, according to officials, George Hyatte and Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte were found.

Jennifer Hyatte, 31, met her husband as a prison nurse and was fired last year for sneaking food to him. A few months later, she got permission from the warden to marry Hyatte, who has a long and violent criminal record.

Her ex-husband, Eli Gourdin, told the Deseret Morning News of Salt Lake City that he last spoke with her Monday when she told him she was excited because George was going to be released.

"We don't know George, we can't judge George ...," Gourdin's current wife, Katie, told the paper. "We only know what Jennifer's told us. She's very much in love with him."

Eli Gourdin said Jennifer Hyatte had custody of their three children, the oldest of whom is 12. The children have been staying with him for the summer, he said.

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