Suspects in courthouse shooting to be returned
George and Jennifer Hyatte fought in court last week against being sent out of Ohio. After Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen issued warrants for their extradition, the Hyattes stopped resisting Friday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
“Do you wish to challenge the legality of the extradition warrant issued for you by the governor?” Judge Eric Brown asked George Hyatte during a 10-minute hearing.
“Send me to Tennessee,” the shackled and handcuffed inmate replied with a faint smile. George Hyatte, 34, is serving a 41-year sentence for robbery and assault charges.
Jennifer Hyatte, 31, also said she did not want to contest the extradition warrant.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys said the couple likely would be moved to Tennessee later Friday or Saturday. The Hyattes are expected to be returned to Roane County, where they will face a hearing at the same courthouse where the crime occurred. That hearing could occur as soon as Saturday but more likely on Monday, Roane County officials said.
“They want them quick,” said John Sproat, Jennifer Hyatte’s lawyer.
Authorities accuse Jennifer Hyatte of using a gun to ambush guards who were transporting her husband for a court appearance Aug. 9. Corrections officer Wayne “Cotton” Morgan, 56, was killed and Jennifer Hyatte was shot in leg by a guard.
The couple was captured a day later at budget motel in Columbus after the cabbie who drove them to the city called police.
George Hyatte, 34, has a history of escapes. In 1998, he fled from the jail in Kingston, Tenn., and was a fugitive for about a day. He escaped from the Rhea County jail in Dayton, Tenn., in November 2002 and was captured the next day in southwest Florida.
Throughout his hearing, George Hyatte was flanked by four sheriff’s deputies, with a fifth stationed at the courtroom’s main entrance. That’s three more deputies than the court normally would use, and Jennifer Hyatte had two extra deputies for her hearing.
George Hyatte slouched in his chair and answered most of Brown’s questions with “yes, sir” and “no, sir.”
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Tim Mitchell said he had been concerned the Hyattes would continue to fight extradition.
“It actually went a little more smoothly than I expected,” he said.
After his initial court appearance, George Hyatte will be returned to the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville to await trial in Morgan’s death.
Jennifer Hyatte, who has no criminal history, ordinarily would be held in the county jail. But Roane County Sheriff David Haggard has said his facility is inadequate and he would seek to have her placed at the Tennessee Prison for Women in Nashville, also a maximum-security institution.