Accused killers escape from LeFlore County jail

POTEAU, Okla. (AP) -- Two accused killers got a brief taste of freedom when they convinced a LeFlore County jailer to open a cell door so they could take out the trash.

William L. Kimble and James L. DeRosa told the jailer they needed to "move a bag of trash out," Sheriff Kendall Ballew said.

"When he opened the door, they rushed him and overpowered him and struck him with a broom handle they acquired from somewhere,"

Ballew said.

"He just couldn't fight both of them off."

Kimble, 21, and DeRosa, 23, grabbed the jailer's pepper gas and sprayed him before leaping from a second-floor window around 1:15 a.m., Ballew said.

"He wasn't hurt bad -- a knot on the head and a mild concussion," Ballew said. He declined to identify the jailer.

Dozens of law officers searched for the men. But it was an informant's tip that led authorities to an apartment complex in north Poteau about 7:30 a.m., LeFlore District Attorney Rob Wallace said. The pair were found hiding there.

Kimble, of Fort Smith, Ark., is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Everett Harvell Jr., 22.

Harvell's body was discovered Jan. 8, 1999, in a bedroom of his home northeast of Spiro. Two other people also are charged in the slaying.

DeRosa, a LeFlore County resident, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the fatal stabbings of Curtis Plummer, 73, and his wife, Gloria, 70.

The Plummers were found dead in their home near Poteau in October. DeRosa and another man are accused of killing the couple for $63.

Wallace could file escape charges against Kimble and DeRosa, he said.

"That's pending a formal report to us from the sheriff,"

Wallace said.