Reward Offered for Escaped Death Row Inmate

A $10,000 reward has been offered in a nationwide manhunt for a Texas death row inmate who used street clothes and a fake ID badge to walk out of the Harris County Jail, to the embarrassment of jail officials.

Charles Victor Thompson, a convicted killer sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, was in Houston from death row to be resentenced after an appeals court ordered it. He was resentenced Oct. 28 and was waiting to be transferred back to prison.

Thompson was taken to a room in the jail Thursday to meet with his attorney, but investigators discovered later the visitor was not is attorney of record. The visitor is being investigated.

Charles Victor Thompson
Prison mug shot

Thompson apparently changed clothes in the visitor's room and used a fake prison badge to walk past at least four jail employees, telling some he worked for the Texas Attorney General's office. He made his way to the visitor's lobby and simply walked away from the jail.

"This was 100 percent human error, that's the most frustrating thing about it," sheriff's spokesman Lt. John Martin said Friday. "There were multiple failures. There were several points where it could have been prevented."

Thompson was convicted of the murders of Dennise Hayslip, 39, of Tomball, Texas and her boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of Spring, Texas near Houston.

See Also:
Search for Escaped Inmate Goes Nationwide
Jurors, Victims' Kin Fear Escaped Inmate

More Information:
The Death Penalty

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