DATE: Wednesday, September 3, 1997          TAG: 9709030482

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   39 lines

LAST MISSISSIPPI ESCAPEE CAUGHT

The last of four Mississippi prison escapees sought by Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Chesapeake police was arrested Tuesday after Virginia Beach police found him living in the woods behind Wayside Motor Inn.

Wayne Thomas, 22, was arrested about 10 a.m. after being spotted in the woods by police who had kept the motel in the 400 block of S. Military Highway under surveillance, said detective Don Rimer.

The other fugitives were arrested earlier. Dusty Turner, 19, was pulled from a drainage ditch in a Virginia Beach swamp late Friday. Scotty Martin, 24, was arrested Saturday morning as he stood on a street near the Oceanfront. Brian Roberts, 25, was arrested after accepting a hot meal at a church from the pastor and a retired Norfolk police officer.

The men were reported missing Aug. 6 from a Harrison County, Miss., prison in Gulfport. All four were serving from 5 to 10 years for a variety of theft and/or burglary convictions, police said.

After the men escaped from the prison, they fled to Lake City, Fla., where they broke into a home and stole a car. From there, they headed north through Georgia and South Carolina and into North Carolina.

On Aug. 10, they broke into another home, this time in Dublin, N.C., and stole another car. That vehicle later was found in the parking lot at Janaf Shopping Center in Norfolk, police said.

Friday night, police got a tip that three suspicious men were hanging around the Wayside Motor Inn. When officers responded, the men ran into a swampy area. Turner was arrested after a search.

Rimer said the men will be sent back to the jurisdictions where they committed crimes while they were on the run. Where they are sent first will be up to the jurisdictions and the severity of each crime, Rimer said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Wayne Thomas KEYWORDS: ESCAPED PRISONER ESCAPED CONVICT CAPTURE

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