FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – After nearly a week on the lam, a murder suspect who slipped from his shackles and bolted from a crowded South Florida courtroom in a meticulous escape plot involving seven accomplices was captured at a nondescript motel, authorities said Thursday.
The seven people who investigators say assisted 21-year-old Dayonte Resiles include a pregnant teenager who staged secretive three-way jailhouse phone calls to plan the caper and an older cousin who provided Resiles with a wig and colored contact lenses to use as a disguise. All seven were arrested on escape and other charges.
Resiles, who is accused of killing a woman whose family founded the Halliburton oil services company, was ordered held without bond during a court appearance Thursday. Broward County Judge Michael Davis also ordered Resiles jailed in isolation, including no contact with other inmates and no outside communication except with attorneys.
“He’s proven himself very resourceful,” Davis said. “I can’t have this gentleman interacting with any other inmates.”
After Resiles briefly objected that the communications restrictions were “unconstitutional and unfair” because his family couldn’t monitor his mental condition, the judge ordered a mental health evaluation as well.