Pubdate: Fri, 18 Nov 2005
Source: Des Moines Register (IA)
http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051118/NEWS01/51118004/1001/NEWS
Copyright: 2005 The Des Moines Register.
Contact:  http://desmoinesregister.com/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/123
Author: Kevin Dobbs, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

ESCAPEE TOLD SUB SHOP WORKERS HE WAS A CONVICT

Police in southern Missouri today captured the second of two inmates 
who escaped from Iowa's maximum security prison at Fort Madison, 
ending a five-day national manhunt for two men serving life for violent crimes.

Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, was found at a truck stop at about 7:30 
a.m. this morning in Steele, Mo., a small town about 200 miles south 
of St. Louis, authorities said.

Legendre, convicted of attempted murder, had been seen repeatedly at 
the truck stop since Thursday afternoon. He had asked customers for gas money.

"The girls were making him a sub, and he said he was a state 
convict," said Vivian Hannaford, a cashier. "We thought he was kidding."

"He offered no resistance and he was cooperative," Pemiscot County 
Sheriff Tommy Greenwell said.

Greenwell said a local resident spotted Legendre at the truck stop 
and reported it to police. Legendre was found with a stolen pickup. 
Authorities said Legendre is thought to have earlier stolen two taxi 
cabs in St. Louis, robbed and assaulted two people before making his 
way to Steele.

St. Louis police said they have not yet charged Legendre, but he 
could face two counts each for robbery and assault in the first degree.

Richard Wilkes, a St. Louis police spokesman, said that Thursday 
afternoon a man matching Legendre's description was picked up outside 
a St. Louis store by a female cab driver. He attacked the driver, 
forced her out of the car and stole it. Later that night, at the St. 
Louis airport, the man was picked up by a male cab driver. He hit 
that driver with an object and the driver fled the car.

"I can't confirm yet that is was" Legendre, "but it would really be a 
coincidence if it wasn't him," Wilkes said this morning.

It was not immediately clear what weapon Legendre may have used. He 
was in the Pemiscot County jail this morning and will be sent to St. 
Louis later today to face charges there, authorities said.

"I'd like to see him sent right back to Iowa, but I think they'll 
want to him to face up to what he did in St. Louis first," Greenwell said.

The arrest came one day after Martin Shane Moon, 34, was found 
sleeping in a car near a small southern Illinois town called Chester.

Legendre, convicted of attempted murder and kidnapping in the state 
of Nevada, escaped from the state penitentiary at Fort Madison on 
Monday with Moon, who was imprisoned for the 1999 shooting death of a 
man in Clarke County.

Authorities in Illinois said the two men split up shortly after the 
escape. They were found about 125 miles apart from each other.

-- This report contains information from the Associated Press.