Initial appearance held for inmate captured with warden's wife

Monday, April 11th 2005, 4:52 pm

By: News On 6

MANGUM, Okla. (AP) -- Convicted murderer Randolph Dial, who was captured last week nearly 11 years after escaping from prison with an assistant warden's wife, made an initial court appearance Monday.

He was informed that he faces a single charge of escape and a public defender was appointed for him, said Greer County Court Clerk Phyllis Denney. No plea was entered.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation will determine whether Dial should face additional charges arising from his escape from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite with Bobbi Parker and his years on the lam with her, said District Attorney John Wampler. She is the wife of Randy Parker, who was an assistant warden at the facility.

Dial told Associate District Judge Mike Warren that he understood the escape charge against him.

The FBI has said the initial investigation shows Dial kept Bobbi Parker a captive for all these years by threatening to harm her family.

A preliminary hearing was set for Dial for June 13 and he was brought back to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Attorneys Jim Hines and Nan Hendrickson of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System were appointed to represent Dial.

Dial told reporters last week he abducted Bobbi Parker at knifepoint during his escape. He said he brainwashed her into staying with him in Texas as they moved from Houston to Crockett to Nacogdoches, and then the chicken farm five years ago.

Dial, a sculptor and painter, was convicted of the 1981 murder of a karate instructor. He had obtained trusty status at the reformatory, and he ran an inmate pottery program with Bobbi Parker and had access to the couple's home during the day in staff housing on prison grounds.