Texas Fugitives in Custody After Standoff

Feb. 7 -- Two armed Texas fugitives holed up in an Oklahoma gas station released their lone hostage after a nightlong standoff.

Convicted murderers Curtis Allen Gambill and Joshua Bagwell had escaped Jan. 28 from a north Texas jail, along with Chrystal Gale Soto and Charles Jordan.

The FBI had received a tip the four were at the gas station Wednesday night, and arrested Soto and Jordan when they stepped outside to make a phone call.

Gambill and Bagwell remained inside with a 70-year-old hostage, but released him before dawn, then turned themselves over peacefully.

The hostage was not injured.

‘Developing a Rapport’

FBI Special Agent Richard Marquise told The Associated Press the surrender was the result of "a very skillful agent developing a rapport" with the escapees.

"There was discussion about hunting and fishing and what life was in prison," Marquise told the news agency. "They didn't ask for $1 million."

Marquise said the fugitives asked only to talk to their relatives on the telephone.

The four used a homemade knife to overpower a prison guard at the Montague County Jail. Since their escape, they have been linked to two burglaries and a car theft in Oklahoma.

Gambill, 23, and Bagwell, 24, were convicted in the 1996 murder of cheerleader Heather Rose Rich, 16, and were sentenced to life in prison. Soto, 30, and Jordan, 22, are facing charges in connection with the deaths of an elderly couple.