COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- Roughly 36 hours after police say a prisoner's wife opened fire on his guards -- killing one of them -- and sprang him from custody, authorities captured the couple at a motel in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night.
What began in a hail of bullets ended with a phone call: Authorities called the suspects' motel room and told them they were surrounded. The couple gave up without a fight.
George and Jennifer Hyatte's short-lived freedom ended in a room at an America's Best Value Inn, said Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
"We have found weapons," he said. "We don't know if it's the murder weapon, and we're processing those."
Gwyn declined to say what, if anything, the suspects said when arrested.
John Bolen, with the U.S. Marshals Service in Columbus, said the suspects arrived at the hotel in a taxi, and authorities received a tip that they were there.
Gwyn said the wife suffered serious gunshot wounds during the escape but that the injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening.
George Hyatte is expected to appear in federal court in Columbus on Thursday. His wife will do the same when her medical condition allows it.
Both will face first-degree murder charges in the death of the guard.
The escape happened Tuesday morning outside the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee. The 34-year-old Hyatte was being escorted under police guard when his 31-year-old wife traded gunfire with guards, killing one of them, police said. (
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Earlier Wednesday evening, police in Erlanger, Kentucky, converged on a motel parking lot, searched the building and hauled away a gold van that the couple were believed to have used during their getaway.
"They had just left probably minutes prior to the entry to the rooms," said Gwyn.
The motel was just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, about two miles from Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport and on the Norfolk Southern railway. Security at the airport was on alert for the couple, and residents were urged to keep their eyes peeled.
Erlanger also is 217 miles from Kingston, Tennessee, where the suspects fled Tuesday morning in an SUV after the deadly shootout outside the courthouse. They later abandoned the SUV for the van, police said.
Gwyn said George Hyatte, who escaped while wearing handcuffs and leg irons, was no longer shackled when captured.
repoted by CNN.
