(Stillwater, Okla.) — A convicted murderer, who escaped from the Payne County Jail last Thursday night by assuming a cellmate’s identity, was captured Tuesday morning at a motel in St. Louis, Missouri, by the U.S. Marshal’s Office, according to a news release from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Patrick Marteaz Walker, 34, who was serving a life sentence at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for first-degree murder in Oklahoma City committed at age 17, had been brought to the Payne County Jail for arraignment on a charge of attacking a guard at a Cushing private prison where he was previously held.
“We deeply appreciate the dogged, tireless efforts of the U.S. Marshals to take Patrick Walker into custody,” DOC Director Joe M. Allbaugh said in a news release.
“Fortunately, they were able to capture him without incident, and he will soon be back in Oklahoma,” Allbaugh said.
“The search for Walker began Friday after the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, informed DOC he had bonded out using another inmate’s identity.
“Since then, DOC Fugitive Apprehension and Investigations agents, as well as sheriff’s deputies, state troopers and a host of other law enforcement had been looking for him around-the-clock.
“I’m looking forward to a full report explaining how one of our most dangerous inmates could bond out of a county jail,” Allbaugh said. “We can’t have this happen again in any of the 76 other counties of this state.”
Walker and another inmate, Charles Ransom Pendarvis, who resemble each other, “were housed together in the detox north cell of the Payne County Jail,” according to an affidavit filed Tuesday by Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers.
Last Friday at 10:50 a.m., the sheriff’s staff learned that Pendarvis had been bonded out of the jail at 9 p.m. the previous night, but he was actually still in his cell, the affidavit said. During an interview, Pendarvis said “they released the wrong person and actually released Walker,” the affidavit said.
“A team of sheriff’s office administrators and investigators were assembled and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, United States Marshal’s Service and the FBI began a joint investigation,” the affidavit said.
“It was learned that while Pendarvis and Walker were in jail together, Walker befriended Pendarvis and a scheme was started by Walker,” the affidavit alleged.
“Walker and Pendarvis talked for several days where Patrick learned intimate things about Pendarvis. Walker told Pendarvis that he was on the yard with one of his family members and knew that his father was sick.
“He said he had changed his ways and wanted to help him out by getting a hold of his people and getting him bonded out. Pendarvis provided his personal information to Walker and a person we have identified as Meagan Ashley Ward Hughes/Mendoza,” the affidavit alleged.
The day before the escape, security camera footage in the Payne County Courthouse showed that three women, later identified as Meagan Hughes/Mendoza, Aisha Stewart and Naomi Dobbs were in the courtroom when Walker appeared on his charge of attacking a prison guard, the affidavit alleged.
Stewart, who was charged Tuesday with aiding in the escape, “approached a deputy working courthouse security asking to visit Walker,” but that was denied because visitation was over for the day, according to the affidavit.
“We learned, by listening to jail recorded telephones and from Dobbs’ cellular telephone that the three girls had been working with Walker by selling drugs (and) visiting other unknown associates of Walker to get money together and attempt to find a car to buy and/or rent to facilitate Walker’s escape,” the investigator alleged in his affidavit.
On Nov. 27, two days before Walker’s escape, while speaking to Dobbs on the recorded jail phone system, Walker “asks her where they are, meaning Stewart and Hughes/Mendoza,” the affidavit alleged.
“She tells him that they are here. He asks her what that is about and she says, ‘I don’t know. I thought they was leavin’. He says, ‘na they ain’t going out of town yet. I’m a bust a move right here. They ain’t goin out of town till Friday,’” the affidavit alleged.
“In the same conversation she asks about Twin Bro coming down there. Walker says, ‘na n…. dem girls.’ She then states, ‘I thought you was saying you and Bro was going to ride or not.’ He says, ‘hell no, dem girls,’” the affidavit alleged.
Dobbs, who was charged Tuesday with helping Walker escape from jail by providing $2,100 in cash to bond out the cellmate whose identity Walker allegedly assumed, was interviewed Friday by Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown and again the next day by Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers, the affidavit said.
“She admitted that she gathered money and attempted to get a car for Patrick. She also admitted to giving money to Hughes/Mendoza to bond Pendarvis out of jail,” the affidavit alleged.
“During the interview of Pendarvis, we learned that Walker had smuggled in a cell phone. We believe that he used the phone’s battery up and then had to rely on the jail system phone. There is a large amount of planning that we believe occurred while Walker had the cell phone in his possession,” the affidavit alleged.
Hughes/Mendoza, under the name Meagen Ashley Ward Hughes, 28, of Edmond, was charged Friday with conspiring with Walker for him to impersonate another inmate and help Walker escape from the Payne County Jail.
According to another affidavit by the investigator, a bondsman and “Meagen met, filled out paperwork, and the bondsman posted the bond for Charles Pendarvis.” She paid the bondsman $1,500 in cash to post bond for Pendarvis, the affidavit alleged.
“When jail staff called and pulled for Pendarvis, Patrick Walker took on his identity. The jail staff released Walker under Pendarvis’ name, the affidavit alleged.
Walker walked out of the jail at 9 p.m. Friday, met with the bondsman and signed paperwork – as Patrick Walker, but the bondsman did not catch it, the affidavit alleged.
“The bondsman told us that Meagen and Patrick left together in the same car,” the affidavit alleged. She remains at large, court records show.
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