LEWISBURG, W.Va. — The Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC) announced the arrest of four people on Tuesday in another state.
U.S. Marshals arrested 39-year-old Samuel Hartman of Magazine, who escaped from the East Arkansas Regional Unit (EARU) on August 12, 2022, was captured at a Quality Inn in Lewisburg, West Virginia, along with his wife 39-year-old Misty Hartman, mother 61-year-old Linda White and his mother's boyfriend 52-year-old Rodney Trent.
According to ADC, Misty Hartman and White were with Samuel Hartman at the time of his escape, while Trent is believed to have helped.
“Today’s announcement is the culmination of a year of outstanding, dedicated work by our heroic law enforcement officers," Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. "Now that they have brought this dangerous fugitive to justice, all Arkansans can sleep safer at night."
ADC said Hartman was in jail for "rape out of Franklin County," and had been jailed for life since 2013 before he escaped.
“Today’s capture was the result of deliberate and determined law enforcement work,” said Joe Profiri, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Corrections. “The United States Marshals Service, Arkansas State Police and the Arkansas Department of Corrections have kept this case on the forefront and followed hundreds of leads over the course of the last year."
On August 12, 2022, Hartman was on a work detail when a vehicle approached the work crew. U.S. Marshals said two women, later identified as Misty Hartman and White, exited the vehicle and fired several shots toward the crew. At the same time, Hartman ran to a vehicle and fled to an area just short of the Mississippi River.
U.S. Marshals said Department of Corrections officers chased after the vehicle until the fugitive and his accomplices took off on two pre-staged jet skis.
In March, USMS investigators from the agency’s Cold and Complex Case Unit paired up with investigators from the Eastern District of Arkansas to find the three.
Investigators developed information that White had ties to West Virginia and contacted the Southern District of West Virginia for assistance in the case.