ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Two escaped prisoners from Virginia were in jail Sunday in Ohio, where they were apprehended after a motorist recognized them from a report on the television show ``America's Most Wanted.''
Terrance Plummer and Charles Miller were being held without bond in the Sandusky County jail in Fremont, said Sgt. William Voelker of the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Milan. He said the two men probably would have been arraigned Monday.
Plummer and Miller overpowered a Louisa County deputy Thursday and took his gun before fleeing in his patrol car. They were arrested about 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
Voelker said the men were charged in Ohio with receiving stolen property, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest. Miller was charged with fleeing in a motor vehicle and not having a driver's license.
Also, felony escape warrants were issued in Louisa County.
Voelker said a Detroit man who had seen the television report about the escapees noticed them on the Ohio Turnpike and called authorities on his car phone. When the suspects' car entered a service plaza, the state patrol closed in.
Plummer went into the plaza's restaurant while Miller stayed in the vehicle. When a state trooper approached the car with her revolver drawn, Miller drove away with state cruisers in pursuit, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Mary Evans.
Plummer fled the restaurant and was caught in the back of the plaza, she said. Miller led police on a chase into Toledo at up to 100 mph. Officers laid a ``stop stick,'' a device that flattens tires, on the roadway. When this disabled the car, Miller tried to flee on foot before officers grabbed him, Evans said.
Voelker credited the man who called authorities with helping apprehend Plummer. ``We're looking into getting him some kind of commendation,'' Voelker said. He declined to release the man's name.
Miller and Plummer, both 30, were being brought from a jail in suburban Richmond to the Louisa County Circuit Courthouse when they escaped about 10:15 a.m. Thursday.
Officials say the two managed to remove their handcuffs and leg chains before overpowering the deputy. Shortly after fleeing in the patrol car, they hijacked another car at gunpoint.
The two were seen at an Interstate 95 toll plaza near the Maryland-Delaware border early Friday. Later in the day, the FBI announced the two were considered suspects in a Friday morning bank robbery in Philadelphia.
Miller was accused of violating his parole after being sentenced for stealing and wrecking three vehicles, including a state police cruiser, authorities said. Plummer was being held on charges of robbery, forgery and parole violations and was to appear as a witness in another case, authorities said.
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