OROVILLE, CA - AUGUST 9: A junkyard for jet skis is viewed along Highway 70 on August 9, 2022, in Oroville, California. Communities along the Sierra Foothills near Oroville have been dealing with blistering hot temperatures this summer. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
In August 2022, Samuel Hartman escaped an Arkansas prison with the help of his wife and mother and some jet skis. One year later, authorities detained the 39-year-old in a West Virginia motel on Tuesday (Aug. 29).
He reportedly escaped while on work detail on August 12, 2022. The U.S. Marshals accuse his wife, Misty, and mother, Linda White, of pulling up on guards and inmates, firing shots, and enabling Hartman a moment to escape from a field near the prison.
Correction officers engaged in a chase with Hartman and crew to the Mississippi River. But the group had already escaped on two jet skis. They later discovered the mother’s boyfriend, Rodney Trent, is a West Virginia Native.
Multiple local departments collaborated to arrest Hartman at a Quality Inn, including the West Virginia State Police, Lewisburg Police Department, and Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Office. His wife, mother, and mother’s boyfriend were also reportedly arrested.
According to Fox News, prosecutors released a phone call between Hartman and mother Linda. On the recording, she reportedly tells her son she’d “keep denying everything to the end…regardless.”
His mother also tells him that he hasn’t “done nothing like that.” However, Hartman was convicted of sexually assaulting his 14-year-old stepdaughter. Before his escape, he was sentenced to life in prison in 2013. He escaped from the East Arkansas Regional Unit while working in a nearby field.
On the recorded line, Hartman reportedly admitted to touching the minor by “accident” but also believed touching was “innocent.”
Charges for Linda White and his wife, Misty, remain unclear. But the mother’s boyfriend Trent is charged with harboring a sex offender.
This is a developing story.
