Escaped prisoners plead innocent to capital murder

HUNTSVILLE - Two convicts whose escape from a work detail last year led to the death of a corrections officer pleaded innocent today to capital murder charges.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Jerry Martin, 38, and John Ray Falk, 41, Walker County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Stroud said.

Both inmates, chained at the waist and ankles and escorted by numerous officers, appeared separately during brief hearings Thursday. Prosecutors said they planned to try the pair together. Defense lawyers asked the trial be moved outside Huntsville.

The Walker County Courthouse is just a couple miles east of where corrections officer Susan Canfield, 59, died in September after the inmates broke away from the detail outside the Wynne Unit prison in Huntsville. They stole a truck and rammed into her while she was on horseback.

The prisoners dumped the pickup about a mile away, then confronted a woman in a bank drive-through and took her car. Huntsville police then shot out a tire in that car and the inmates ran away.

Falk was apprehended within an hour. Martin was caught hiding in a tree about 3 1/2 hours later. The next day, Martin unsuccessfully tried to hang himself in his cell.

Martin had been locked up since 1997 with a 50-year term for attempted murder. Falk was serving life for murder in 1986.

Canfield, from New Waverly, had been a corrections officer for seven years. Her horse was shot in the gunfire and was euthanized.

According to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice report of the escape, Martin jumped into a Huntsville city truck and rammed it into Canfield. The horse threw the officer and she struck the truck's windshield before crashing to the ground, causing her fatal head injuries.

The report also said events were set in motion when a supervisory officer allowed Martin to improperly approach him after the prisoner asked that the officer hold his broken watch. Falk created a noise that distracted the officer and Martin got close enough to rush the guard and get his gun.

Martin threw the pistol to Falk, who aimed it at the officer as the two inmates then climbed over a barbed wire fence where Canfield was on her horse in a parking lot. Falk began firing at her and she and other officers returned fire. Falk then stuck his gun in Canfield's side and grabbed her rifle as Martin, who had jumped into the truck, rammed Canfield.

The agency investigation found the staffing level of nine officers, including a sergeant, was proper for the 76-prisoner work detail.

The supervising officer was cited during a disciplinary hearing and recommended for dismissal and subsequently resigned.

lac