TWO
CADDO COUNTY JAIL ESCAPEES TO SERVE 30 YEARS
IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR KIDNAPPING AND SEXUAL ASSAULT
Crime Spree from Oklahoma to Texas Included Escape, Kidnapping, Sexual
Assault,
Car-Jacking, Firearms Violations, Conspiracy, Auto Theft and Burglary
Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma - John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western
District of Oklahoma, announced today that ELI DOMINIQUE EDWARDS, 30,
of Wichita, Kansas, and LEWIS JULIAN PETEET, 27, of Anadarko, Oklahoma,
were sentenced to serve 360 months in federal prison for the kidnapping
and sexual assault of a female victim following their escape from the
Caddo County Jail on March 12, 2006. This federal sentence was ordered
to be served consecutive to the conclusion of the defendants' 99 year
prison term in Texas.
"The
crime spree by these two defendants terrorized southwest Oklahoma and
the panhandle of Texas for two days," said United States Attorney
John C. Richter. "These defendants will never again hurt another
citizen in our community as they will spend the rest of their lives in
prison. I wish to commend the cooperative and careful law enforcement
efforts of the FBI, OSBI, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Caddo County Sheriff's
Office, Texas Department of Public Safety, Wheeler County Sheriff's Office
(Texas), Hemphill County Sheriff's Office (Texas), and the Pampa Police
Department."
On
March 12, 2006, the defendants were in the Caddo County Jail awaiting
transportation to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to serve a state
prison sentence. While on their way to attend a Sunday church service
in the jail, the men escaped by breaking a window and began a crime spree
which started in Anadarko and ended in Wheeler County, Texas.
Following
their escape, the two men stole a car and burglarized a house in Caddo
County stealing, among other things, a shotgun, a crossbow and ammunition.
By gunpoint the defendants then carjacked two more vehicles in Caddo County
and then entered and burglarized a second house in Caddo County from which
they stole various firearms, ammunition, clothing and a large kitchen
knife. At the second house, the defendants kidnapped a woman, threatened
her with firearms and the large kitchen knife and forced her into her
car. Edwards forced the victim to perform oral sex on him and have sexual
intercourse while defendant Peteet drove the stolen vehicle to Texas.
Edwards also forced the victim to have sexual intercourse a second time
in Texas. The defendants were ultimately apprehended in Wheeler County,
Texas.
Edwards
and Peteet were charged in Texas in April 2006 with aggravated robbery
and kidnapping for crimes defendants had committed in Wheeler County Texas,
but were not charged with the kidnapping of the woman from Oklahoma. Defendants
were eventually tried and convicted of these crimes and given 99 year
sentences in the State of Texas.
In
May of 2006, Edwards and Peteet were indicted by a federal grand jury
in Oklahoma City. In September of 2007, Edwards pled guilty to kidnapping
and admitted that he abducted a female victim, took her across state lines
from Oklahoma to Texas, and held her as a hostage for his own sexual gratification.
Also in September, Peteet pled guilty to kidnapping and admitted that
he abducted a female victim, took her across state lines from Oklahoma
to Texas, and held her as a hostage for Edwards' sexual gratification.
At the sentencing
hearing today, Judge Vicki Miles LaGrange sentenced to serve 360 months
to run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment already imposed
in the States of Oklahoma and in Texas.
These cases were the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma
Highway Patrol, Caddo County Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public
Safety, Wheeler County Sheriff's Office (Texas), Hemphill County Sheriff's
Office (Texas), and the Pampa Police Department. The cases were prosecuted
by United States Attorney John C. Richter and Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Susanna Gattoni Voegeli, David Petermann, Sanford Coats and Mark Yancey.
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