Ariz. inmate under increased security

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) - An Arizona inmate who escaped from a state prison last year will be under heightened security during his trial this week after he attempted to head butt a sheriff's detective and authorities found a makeshift weapon in his cell, sheriff's officials said.

John McCluskey, 46, has pleaded not guilty in Arizona state court to a single escape charge, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault and misconduct involving weapons.

His co-defendants — another of the fugitives and their accomplice — resolved their Arizona charges that stemmed from the hijacking of two truck drivers without going to trial. After McCluskey's trial, he and two of the others will face charges in New Mexico for the killing of an Oklahoma couple.

In court Tuesday in Kingman, two officers stood near McCluskey, keeping watch over him as Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn questioned potential jurors. McCluskey wore a collared white shirt, dark pants and had his hair slicked back.

At one point, he turned around, smiled and whispered to a woman sitting in the courtroom. A guard warned her not to approach McCluskey.

A day earlier, McCluskey tried to head butt a detective after prosecutors successfully argued before a judge that he was a security threat and should wear a stun belt during his trial, said Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter. McCluskey knocked the detective's glasses off, and McCluskey immediately was taken down, she said.

McCluskey then refused to walk to a transport van or into the jail and had to physically be carried, she said.

Earlier this month, authorities found a tightly rolled set of newspapers in his cell that could have been used as a club, Carter said. McCluskey hadn't caused any other trouble at the jail since shortly after his capture when he cut his neck and forearm using a jail-issued shaving razor, Carter said. The injuries were not life-threatening but required a hospital visit and stiches.

Additional uniformed and plainclothes officers will be at the courthouse during McCluskey's trial that is scheduled to end Friday, said Sheriff Tom Sheahan.

"He's a unique, high-risk inmate," Sheahan said. "And with his ties — a number of family members assisted him on the escape — there are family members again who might want to assist him out of a courtroom or out of a transport situation. That's why we're taking some real high-intense measures with him."

McCluskey, who was serving a 15-year prison term for attempted second-degree murder and other charges, was the last of three men who escaped from the prison near Kingman last July to be captured. He and Casslyn Welch, his cousin and fiancée, were found at an eastern Arizona campsite three weeks after the prison break.

Welch acknowledged helping McCluskey, Tracy Province and Daniel Renwick escape by throwing wire cutters over the prison fence and supplying them with cash and guns.

Welch, Province and McCluskey then went on a crime spree that included the kidnapping of two truck drivers at gunpoint and the killing of an Oklahoma couple in New Mexico, authorities said.

The truck drivers' lives were spared after a vote was taken not to kill them, prosecutors said. McCluskey was the dissenting vote.

But McCluskey, Welch and Province targeted Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., at a rest stop for the couple's camping trailer. The Haases were taken to a remote ranch where they were shot, federal prosecutors in New Mexico said.

Renwick was the first of the group to be captured after a shootout with police in Colorado. Province was nabbed in a small Wyoming town after he was spotted at a church.

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Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff contributed to this report.