Inmate recaptured in time for murder trial

EUFAULA, Okla. (AP) -- A McIntosh County jail escapee was recaptured Monday morning in time for his double murder trial. <br><br>Officials said Harold McElmurry III, 30, was taken into custody about

Monday, June 12th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

EUFAULA, Okla. (AP) -- A McIntosh County jail escapee was recaptured Monday morning in time for his double murder trial.

Officials said Harold McElmurry III, 30, was taken into custody about 6 a.m. when he was spotted in front of the Eufaula City Hall by Eufaula Police Chief Randy Johnson.

Potential jurors began arriving for selection in his trial just hours later. A court official said the trial would proceed as scheduled Monday morning.

McElmurry slid through the barred window of his second-floor cell and jumped 12 feet to the ground about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, McIntosh County sheriff's officials said.

The fugitive was in the jail awaiting trial for the August 1999 slayings of an elderly Lenna couple who hired McElmurry and his wife, Vickie, to do lawn work.

Vickie McElmurry is in jail awaiting trial.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the McElmurrys, who are being tried separately because of their opposing defenses.

McElmurry allegedly stabbed 80-year-old Robert Pendley, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, several times with a pair of scissors and bludgeoned him with a steel pipe, according to reports.

Vickie McElmurry allegedly choked Vivian Pendley, 75, until Harold McElmurry stabbed the woman and dragged her body into the garage, investigators said.