Hyattes, criminal couple, captured

The couple of criminals: a wife, who shot an escort officer dead, and a formed prisoner, who was freed by his wife, was captured at a motel in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night.

Acting on a tip from a cabdriver, police finally tracked George Hyatte, 34, and his wife Jennifer, 31, to a Best Value Inn in Columbus Ohio.

On Tuesday, authorities say Jennifer Hyatte, 31, ambushed two guards as they were leading her 34-year-old husband from a courthouse hearing in Kingston, Tenn., about 300 miles south of Columbus. Guard Wayne Morgan was fatally shot in the escape, Xinhua reminds.

Jennifer Hyatte had some injuries, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, but he declined to elaborate.

Earlier on Wednesday, the two apparently escaped capture by minutes in northern Kentucky after their second getaway vehicle was found at a motel in Erlanger, Kentucky.

"We feel the couple had been there and left minutes earlier," said Gwyn.

Jennifer Hyatte was hospitalized, while her husband was behind bars. Both are to be returned to Kingston to face first-degree murder charges according to the local media.

The Hyattes had been married three months. Jennifer Hyatte is a nurse with no known criminal history.

Now, in addition to the murder count, she has been charged with aiding, abetting and facilitating escape; her husband has been charged with escaping custody.

Tennessee authorities said Wednesday that George Hyatte's escape from the two armed guards had been carefully planned by the career criminal and his new bride.

"They worked diligently on this escape; they worked hard at it," said Kingston Police Chief Jim Washam was quoted as saying by CNN.

Washam said escape vehicles had been placed in advance of the crime, and Jennifer Hyatte had brought a handgun.

The couple also had communicated by telephone and mail in recent days, Washam said, and Jennifer Hyatte had spent Monday night in a nearby hotel, CNN reports.

Investigators have time-lapse video of the courtroom where, moments before the escape, Jennifer Hyatte attended a proceeding on an armed-robbery charge involving her husband.