DATE: Sunday, August 31, 1997               TAG: 9708310082

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  102 lines

THREE PRISON ESCAPEES CAUGHT; 1 ON THE LOOSE

Authorities still aren't sure why four Mississippi prison escapees made their way to Hampton Roads after eluding capture for three weeks.

And three of the men also might be contemplating the wisdom of their choice of stops - from behind bars.

Desperate fugitives they may once have been, but there was an almost pathetic note to their capture.

Dusty Turner, 19, was pulled, bloodied and dirty, from a drainage ditch in a Virginia Beach swamp late Friday. Scotty Martin, 24, was nabbed Saturday morning as he stood on a street near the Oceanfront.

``The continuing saga,'' as Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill called it, took its most unusual turn about 12:45 p.m. Saturday.

The third fugitive, tired and hungry, accepted the offer of a warm meal at a Norfolk church Saturday afternoon - served to him by a pastor and a retired Norfolk police officer who became suspicious.

And like his two former companions, Brian Roberts, 25, was soon back in jail.

``It's one of the most comical things I've ever been through,'' the Rev. Lamar Sentell of Calvary Temple Church said Saturday.

About noon, Sentell and Lou Rawls, a retired police corporal, were working at the church in the 5600 block of Brickell Road when Sentell noticed a stranger sitting by a woodpile behind the church.

``Lou comes in and says there's this fellow sitting out there. He's got his shirt off and he's got tattoos all over him,'' Sentell said.

Rawls said the man appeared hungry, so he was going to bring him some food. But when Rawls carried a plate outside, the man had vanished.

``When Lou came back in, I told him, `You know, we've got some prisoners loose in this area,' '' Sentell said. So Rawls went to search a barn behind the church and, sure enough, found the man inside.

``He brought him back into the social hall and I made him a bowl of beans,'' Sentell said. The stranger was grateful - and hungry.

Although they didn't ask if he was one of the escapees, ``I questioned him just a little bit,'' Sentell said. ``I knew immediately he was one of them. He gave me that Mississippi drawl.''

Rawls called police and, ``about halfway through his bowl of beans, the police showed up,'' Sentell said. Roberts was not angry, however, Sentell said. ``When he got ready to go, and the police put the handcuffs on him, he said, `Thank you, preacher.' ''

With three men back in custody, police throughout Hampton Roads continued to check out tips Saturday that they hoped would lead to the arrest of the fourth fugitive, Wayne Thomas, 22.

Although none of the men captured thus far has put up much of a fight, police were warning that Thomas might be armed and should be considered dangerous.

Police spokesman Hill described him as ``pretty desperate,'' noting that none of the escapees had known anyone in this area and hadn't had ``anywhere to go.''

The men - all serving sentences of between five and 10 years for a variety of theft and/or burglary convictions - were discovered missing early Aug. 6 from a Harrison County, Miss., prison facility in Gulfport.

Later that day, the four broke into a Lake City, Fla., home and stole a car. They headed north through Georgia and South Carolina and into North Carolina.

On Aug. 10, they turned up in Dublin, N.C. They invaded another home, took another vehicle and continued their trek north. A week ago today, the vehicle stolen in North Carolina was found in the parking lot at the Janaf Shopping Center.

On Friday, police got a tip that the men might be in a home in the 1500 block of Lilac Ave. in the Indian River section of Chesapeake. Police went there, but the single man they spotted got away.

Friday evening, police got a tip that there were three suspicious men around the Wayside Motor Inn in the 400 block of South Military Highway in Virginia Beach.

The area is along the border with Norfolk, and officers from both cities responded. The suspects spotted the first police car as it neared, however, and ran for a swampy area near the hotel and along the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River.

K-9 patrols were brought in to assist officers in searching the swamp, brush and woods. A Virginia Beach police helicopter, circling overhead, lighted the area with a high-intensity beam.

About 11:15 p.m., officers found Turner hiding in a ditch. They searched a while longer, but found no one else.

Hill said police did find what meager belongings the men had with them inside a room at the motel. There were no weapons, however.

Police now suspected each of the men was on his own. ``They had been all together up until Friday when we started closing in on them,'' Hill said. ``Between the work of the three police departments, they had now gotten separated.''

Hopes were, that might increase the chances they would be captured. And, sure enough, about 8:30 a.m. Saturday, police got a call about Martin.

Virginia Beach police spokesman Lou Thurston said police received an anonymous tip that Martin was standing in the 700 block of Virginia Beach Blvd., near the Oceanfront. Officers went to the area, and Martin was arrested without incident and taken to the Virginia Beach jail. Finally, Roberts was arrested by Norfolk police.

All three men are being held without bond on fugitive from justice charges, Hill said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Scotty Martin

Brian Roberts KEYWORDS: ESCAPED PRISONERS

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