LEWISBURG, W.Va. — A convicted rapist who authorities say used a jet ski throughout an escape from an Arkansas jail final yr was arrested Tuesday in West Virginia, the U.S. Marshals Service stated.

Samuel Paul Hartman, 39, was arrested alongside together with his spouse, his mom and his mom’s boyfriend at a lodge in Lewisburg, the Marshals Service stated in a information launch.

The ladies are accused of serving to Hartman escape in August 2022 from the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys, 96 miles (155 kilometers) east of Little Rock.

Hartman was on a piece element in a area close to the detention facility when a pickup truck with the ladies inside approached. Several gunshots have been fired at a corrections officer from the ready car as Hartman ran to it. The car fled to 2 jet skis staged close to the Mississippi River not removed from the jail, the assertion stated.

Police have stated the deserted jet skis have been discovered on the Mississippi facet of the river and {that a} witness reported seeing one man and two ladies using them.

Investigators later decided that Hartman’s mom had ties to West Virginia. Making the arrests Tuesday have been U.S. marshals and officers with the West Virginia State Police, the Lewisburg Police Department and the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Office.

Arrested together with Hartman have been his spouse, 39-year-old Misty Hartman, his mom, Linda Annette White, 61, and Rodney Trent, 52, recognized by the Marshals Service as White’s boyfriend.

Trent faces felony prices of harboring a intercourse offender and of aiding Hartman and the 2 ladies, the Marshals Service stated. The service didn't say what prices Misty Hartman and White would face.

An Arkansas Department of Corrections spokeswoman stated she anticipated the suspects to be extradited to Arkansas as quickly as attainable.

Hartman, 39, was sentenced to life in jail in 2013 for a rape conviction out of Franklin County, Arkansas.

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