Escaped Killer, Guard Captured in Texas

An escape from the California Institution for Women in Frontera has ended in El Paso, Tex., with the capture of Jeanette Lynn Hughes, a convicted Huntington Beach murderer, and the guard who allegedly helped her flee from the maximum-security prison 11 days ago.

Hughes, who was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the 1984 murder of her husband in their Huntington Beach home, and prison guard Cyndi Marie Coglietti were captured Tuesday night by federal agents and local police at the El Paso International Airport. They were not armed.

Hughes and Coglietti had reservations for a flight to Denver after having stopped for several days in Las Vegas and Phoenix, federal agents said. Prison officials said they believe that Hughes, 36, and Coglietti, 26, were planning to meet a passenger at the El Paso airport to receive some cash.

Hughes and Coglietti, a five-year corrections officer who was assigned to keep special watch on the inmate as a high risk to escape, were being held at an El Paso jail Wednesday. Extradition proceedings to California were pending.

Authorities said they had received a tip that Hughes had relatives in the El Paso area and that she and Coglietti might be there. They also credited Hughes’ family with helping in the investigation.

Prison officials said the capture put an end to the speculation that Coglietti had been kidnaped, a theory that they had previously refused to rule out.

“It’s not a pretty thing to see one of your fellow (staff members) fall victim to a manipulative inmate,” said Ross Dykes, the associate warden at the 2,500-inmate Frontera prison. “The information we have is kind of damning.”

Hughes had tried to saw through her cell bars and made other elaborate escape plans before being caught in 1987, prison officials said. As a result, she was put in a high-security unit that required personal escorts to and from virtually all activities. Coglietti was one of the corrections officers assigned to Hughes’ unit.

Corrections officers in those situations are trained to develop “a close relationship with the inmates, keep an eye on them and what they’re up to” and try to gain access to inmate informants, Dykes said. But in the case of Hughes, he added, Coglietti apparently “crossed the line.”