'Bonnie and Clyde' jailbreak couple fight extradition bid

The “Bonnie and Clyde” couple accused of killing a Tennessee prison officer in a jailbreak have objected to being sent back to the state to face charges.

At a hearing in Columbus, Ohio, the wife appeared dazed and the husband declared: ”I don’t want to leave without her.”

In Tennessee, meanwhile, more than 1,000 people attended a funeral for the guard.

George and Jennifer Hyatte were arrested on Wednesday night without a struggle at a Columbus motel after a cab driver tipped off authorities that he had driven them there.

The tip ended a manhunt that began on Tuesday with the shooting outside a courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee.

George Hyatte, 34, seemed prepared to waive his right to challenge extradition, but when his lawyer explained that Jennifer Hyatte had decided to fight extradition, he shook his head and argued briefly with him.

“I don’t want to leave without her,” said Hyatte, who had on two sets of handcuffs chained tightly to his waist. “I don’t want to. I don’t want to.”

Appearing in court a few minutes earlier, Jennifer Hyatte, 31, appeared dazed and did not talk during the hearing. She showed little emotion until the judge informed her that the charge carried a possible death penalty. She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

Her lawyer, John Sproat, said later that the extradition challenge was a precaution he advised her to take because of the severity of the charge.

Another hearing is set for September 8.

Jennifer Hyatte, a nurse with no criminal record, is accused of ambushing two prison guards as they were leading her husband from the courthouse where he had just pleaded guilty to robbery. Guard Wayne “Cotton” Morgan was shot dead before the couple sped away.

Her father, a former sheriff’s deputy, said yesterday that he had suspected his daughter was planning to help free her husband and asked a probation officer in Utah, where he lives, to alert authorities.

Utah Department of Corrections admitted receiving the information from Floyd Forsyth and said the officer planned to contact his counterparts in Tennessee on Tuesday – the day of the shooting.

With hindsight, the department should have acted sooner, department spokesman Jack Ford said, but added that the information “didn’t appear to raise any red flags” at the time.

Morgan, 56, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was buried with full military honours in Wartburg, Tennessee. He was remembered as a Sunday school teacher and church deacon who regularly ministered to patients in the local nursing home and to prisoners in the town jail.