Insane killer caught after fleeing during trip

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-21 09:14

SEATTLE: An insane killer who slipped away from the staff of a mental institution during a field trip to the Spokane County International Fair has been captured without injury.

Spokane County sheriff's Capt. Dave Reagan says 47-year-old Phillip Arnold Paul was nabbed by Deputy Roger Knight, the same deputy who arrested Paul and was injured by him after he escaped in 1991.

Reagan says Paul was trying to elude a search helicopter Sunday and walked to a road in south-central Washington to try to hitch a ride just as Knight arrived at the scene.

Paul gave Eastern State Hospital staff the slip during the field trip on Thursday. Federal, state and local law enforcement agents have since ruled out one potential hiding place after another.

Paul was committed after he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and acquitted by reason of insanity in the slaying of an elderly woman in Sunnyside, Washington, in 1987. He soaked her body in gasoline to throw off search dogs.

In 1991, he walked away from custody during a day trip in Medical Lake, Washington, and was captured about 15 miles (25 kilometers) away in the direction of Sunnyside, where his family home is located. He subsequently knocked Knight unconscious in the jail booking area and was convicted of first-degree escape and second-degree assault.