Charges in escape filed in Arizona

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Three inmates who broke out of Arizona State Prison-Kingman and the woman who is alleged to have helped in their July 30 escape have been charged in Justice Court.

Also Wednesday, the manhunt for two of the four who remain on the lam shifted from northern Montana near the Canadian border to a tiny town in the Arkansas Ozarks where John McCluskey, 45, and Casslyn Welch, 44, were briefly suspected of robbing a beauty salon. But investigators later said they believe someone else carried out the heist.

Meanwhile, Arizona authorities said that Welch, who is alleged to have provided weapons, cash, clothes, a vehicle and wire cutters for the getaway, also attempted to deliver drugs in the prison on June 19.

Deputy Mohave County attorney Victoria Stazio said Welch was detained by corrections officers during a June prison visit. Stazio said marijuana and heroin were found in her purse.

Stazio said Welch was not arrested at the time, though she was informed she could be charged once an incident review was completed. Undaunted, Welch returned to the prison six weeks later to help free the inmates, according to Arizona U.S. Marshall David Gonzales.

He said Welch tossed a tool into the prison yard where McCluskey, her cousin and fiance, and inmates Tracy Province, 42, and Daniel Renwick, 37, used it to cut through perimeter fences. Renwick made it to Rifle, Colo., where he was arrested Aug. 1, 28 hours after the escape. Renwick is alleged to have fired at pursuing officers who then rammed Renwick's SUV to bring him into custody without anyone being hurt.

During a court appearance Wednesday in Colorado, Renwick was informed he was being charged with three counts of attempted murder, vehicular eluding and possession of a weapon by a previous offender.

Province was captured Monday in Wyoming after he was spotted at a Sunday church service. He waived extradition Tuesday and was expected to be returned to Arizona by U.S. Marshals.

Province and Renwick were convicted of homicides. McCluskey was serving time for attempted murder.

Calling the escape a "national nightmare," Gonzales said Monday that McCluskey and Welch remain at large and consider themselves a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde.

"They joke about it," Gonzales said. "I think they've taken a personae that this is some type of movie and some kind of joke that they are living, but it is not."

New Mexico authorities also suspect the group in connection with the deaths of an Oklahoma couple whose bodies were found in their charred camper in eastern New Mexico a week ago.

Investigators thought they might have boxed in the two near Glacier National Park in recent days, but the leads that put the couple in Montana have been getting stale, with the last possible sighting on Sunday. Then a beauty store owner in Gentry, Ark., got robbed at gunpoint and tied up by two people matching the couple's description.

Dozens of officers from various law enforcement agencies descended on Gentry, and Benton County sheriff's office spokesman Doug Gay said their extensive search would continue. He acknowledged, however, that McCluskey and Welch could be anywhere.

"They could be in Las Vegas, Nevada. They could be in Akron, Ohio," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.