Deputies said escapee had help

07:27 PM CST on Thursday, November 3, 2005

By Nancy Holland / 11 News, Staff Reports and Associated Press

Nancy Holland's report on escape, manhunt | Escapee had help | 6 p.m. update

A massive manhunt was launched for a death row inmate who escaped from a downtown jail on Baker Street Thursday afternoon. The search was focused on an area near I-10 and Jensen.

Watch 11 News for Nancy Holland's report at 6 p.m. and Jeremy Desel's and Vicente Arenas' reports at 10 p.m.

At approximately 3:30 p.m. Thursday, inmate Charles Victor Thompson escaped from the Harris County jail facility at 1200 Baker Street.

Thompson was convicted of capital murder in the April 1998 shooting deaths of Dennise Hayslip of Tomball and Darren Cain of Spring and had been sentenced to the death penalty. Thompson is considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached if spotted.

Thompson, 35, is described as a white male, 5 feet 10 inches, weighing approximately 180 pounds.

Thompson was last seen wearing a dark blue shirt, khaki pants and white tennis shoes.

Deputies said that Thompson had assistance in his escape from the downtown jail. Apparently someone provide him with the pants, shirt, and tennis shoes that he changed into before leaving the jail. But more importantly, he had what appeared to be a badge indicating he worked for the Attorney General's Office. That was enough for Thompson to talk his way through at least two locked doors.

His prison clothes were found in attorney's room. Investigators are not making a connection with that attorney, but Thompson did have a meeting with him Thursday morning.

KHOU-TV

Escapee Charles Victor Thompson

Anyone with information regarding Thompson's location is asked to call the Harris County Sheriff's Office at 713-221-6000 or the criminal warrants division at 713-755-6055.

According to the Houston Chronicle the Tomball man was sentenced to death on Friday for the 1998 slayings of his ex-girlfriend and her love interest after a jury concluded his troubled background did not warrant a life sentence.

Thompson received a new punishment hearing because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that his constitutional right to counsel was violated when prosecutors in his 1999 trial played a recording of Thompson discussing a murder-for-hire plot. The appeals court upheld his capital murder conviction, however.

Thompson had been expected to be returned to the Texas prison system within 45 days, according to Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.

The murders took place April 30, 1998, after Thompson kicked in the door of Hayslip's north Harris County apartment. Cain was shot four times and died immediately. Hayslip was shot in the face and died several days later at a hospital.

While in prison, Thompson was twice accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill witnesses. The first time he allegedly he tried to hire someone to kill a friend's mother who heard him confess.

According to officials, Thompson is a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is extremely dangerous.

The Chronicle reported that prosecutors said those actions proved Thompson - who called himself "Chuckster killer" in letters from jail - was a continuing threat even while behind bars.