Notorious Escape Artist Does It Again

Terrence Washington has a bad habit of running from the law: police say on February 17, 2008, Washington once again pulled his signature disappearing act. Police say around 2:30 a.m., Washington broke out of his Nashville, Tenn. prison cell, and cops believe he made his way to the prison roof and jumped to freedom.

Police say just hours later, Washington was spotted five miles away from the prison in north Nashville. He was seen driving a small black four-door Cadillac.

On April 28, 2008, the lead investigator on the escape case, Major Kevin Carroll, spoke with an AMW tipster who called in after seeing Washington on the April 19, 2008 broadcast of America's Most Wanted.

According to Major Carroll, around April 1, 2008, the woman in her 20s and female friend were walking down the street in their St. Paul, Minn. neighborhood near 7th and Arcade streets when a good-looking guy in a black Ford Excursion -- the stolen vehicle cops suspected Washington might be driving -- pulled up.

The guy introduced himself as "Ryan," but cops now know that it was really Terrence Washington.  Washington hit on one of the young ladies, and she instantly liked him because he was cute and "looked like he had money."

Ryan left with the woman's phone number.  He hooked up with the woman later that night and ended up spending the night with her at her apartment. He would stay with her for the next two weeks as a live-in boyfriend.

Over the two weeks, "Ryan" took his new girlfriend shopping and bought gifts for her children.  He said he was a "tool salesman," but he only worked at night.  Typically, he lounged around the apartment during the day, reading, listening to music and rapping.

Then around midnight, he would "go to work," returning early in the morning.  Major Carroll believes Washington's real job was sticking to his M.O. of burglarizing cars and stealing valuables under the cover of darkness. The back of the Excursion was filled with more than a half-dozen tool boxes while Washington was hanging out in St. Paul.
 
According to our tipster, both of Washington's feet were badly cut up, and he was constantly soaking them and wrapping them fresh gauze.  He told his new friends in St. Paul that them he'd injured his feet in a motorcycle accident. 

Major Carroll now suspects Washington cut them during his escape from the detention center in Nashville on February 17, 2008. He did manage to get over the wire, but he may have paid a painful price for his freedom. 

Washington has had foot problems since his escape from the Harford County Maryland Detention center on a bitter cold night in January 2007.  He escaped that night barefoot and sustained severe frostbite while making his getaway.

The wounds fresh were described by the tipster as "oozing," which means Washington's feet may be badly infected.  Washington's feet are in such bad shape now that he's walking with the aid of a an elaborate, glossy-finished wooden cane. 

In St. Paul, Washington liked to eat at McDonald's but would never go inside to sit down, so he always used the drive through. He also had a laptop computer, a lot of high-end designer glasses and sometimes wore a pair of white Versace glasses with clear lenses.  He's still smoking Newport cigarettes and marijuana, and taking some kind of pills for the pain and infection in his feet.

Sometime during the second week he was there, he suddenly got rid of the Excursion and told the girls it was damaged in an accident. It was later recovered in Duluth, several hours north of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

On the night of April 19, 2008, when Washington was profiled on the AMW's 50 States/50 Fugitives; two tipsters called in to AMW placing him in the Beech street area of St. Paul.  Major Carroll has learned that Washington fled the area right after the broadcast when he was confronted about his true identity by people in the neighborhood who saw him on AMW.

FBI agents who interviewed the women now believe Washington left the Beech street area of St. Paul driving an old, early 1990s Chevy Astro van, with a light blue over dark blue two-tone paint job. 

On May 1, 2008, Clear Channel Outdoor advertising and the FBI teamed up to put Terrence Washington's mug up on 16 digital billboards around the Twin Cities, just in case he's still in the area.

The Running Man Slips Out Again

Terrence Washington's running ways began in 1998, when FBI agents identified him as a suspect in an armed bank robbery in Vernado, La. that netted $33,000.   They learned that Washington already had nine active felony warrants for his arrest in Louisiana and Mississippi. Agents began tracking leads that the accused bank robber had fled to the Little Rock, Ark. area.

On May 15, 1998, police say Washington struck again: Washington and two accomplices allegedly robbed a bank in Dardanelle, Ark. Investigators say surveillance cameras caught Washington in the act.

Police officers quickly responded to that robbery and Washington's two accomplices were arrested, according to police, while Washington managed to escape on foot in a heavily-wooded area. 

Agents say Washington knew the heat would be on him if he stayed in Arkansas, so he headed back to Louisiana. But he refused to lay low. On June 12, 1998, Washington targeted the Hancock Bank in Loranger, La. for his next robbery, according to police sources. Washington and two others allegedly hit the bank and made off with about $13,000. Later that day Washington and his crew were pulled over by the Mississippi State Police. Once again, police say Terrence Washington escaped on foot.

Cops say an informant finally gave Washington up, and on July 6, 1998, Washington was arrested in Conway, Arkansas.  He was sent to the Yell County Jail to await trial on charges for the Dardanelle bank robbery. On November 1, 1998, Washington convinced a jail trustee to "look the other way" while he walked out of the facility, cops say.

Washington was tracked across Mississippi and then into Marshall, Texas where, true to form, he successfully escaped Harrison County Sheriff's deputies on foot.

Washington managed to stay below the radar until 2002, surfacing in Des Peres, Mo., outside of St. Louis.

About 2:00 a.m. on April 5, 2002, Des Peres Police were patrolling a neighborhood when they stumbled upon a stolen parked vehicle.  Washington was casing the same area and bolted when he spotted the police. Officers saw Washington running from the scene and gave chase.

Police say Washington quickly stole a car and sped from the area, driving to a neighboring town. Several different police agencies joined the hunt for Washington. The fugitive abandoned the car he was in and ripped off another vehicle. In all, Washington stole and dumped five cars during the chase.

Five hours later, around 7:00 a.m., Washington ditched the last car in Kirkwood, Mo. Officers quickly set up a perimeter and began closing in on the elusive fugitive. Washington ran into a residential neighborhood, looking for a hiding place. He spotted an open garage door at one house and slipped inside. 

About that time, the owner of the house let her dog out to go to the bathroom. The dog began barking wildly toward the garage. When the owner peeked inside, she noticed a person's feet standing in the corner. Calmly, the woman left the garage and alerted police.

Within moments, officers converged on the scene. Washington took off on foot, but as he tried to scale a six-foot privacy fence, a K-9 dog yanked him down. After nearly four years and at least five stolen cars, the accused bank robber and jail escapee was back in custody.

According to police, Washington was convicted of his charges in Missouri and sentenced to 10 years in the slammer. But in March 2003, Washington was taken to Amite, Louisiana to await trial for the federal bank robbery charges. 

At the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, police say Washington befriended fellow inmate Dan Robertson. On July 13, police say Washington and Robertson used a hacksaw blade to cut out a window in the jail.

Once they crawled out the window, police say they scaled several fences and fled into a wooded area. Detectives say the escapees then stole a truck from a nearby residence and fled the state. The stolen vehicle was recovered in New York a couple of weeks later, but there were no signs of Washington or Robertson.

On September 25, police say they spotted Washington and an unidentified suspect in a stolen SUV in Bel Air, Maryland. After a high speed chase, in which police say Washington rammed a state trooper's car twice, Washington managed to escape through a heavily-wooded area.

Police say Washington then stole a van from a nearby residence and fled. The van was recovered less than two weeks later in Prince George's County, Maryland, but there were no signs of Washington. Police believe Robertson may have been the unidentified suspect traveling with Washington during the high speed chase.

Another Takedown, Another Escape

On November 1, AMW profiled Washington and Robertson's case, and the bad publicity quickly paid off. A tipster, who recognized Robertson's picture and knew where he was living, called the AMW hotline. Robertson was arrested in Washington, D.C. later that night. Even though dozens of tips were reported on Washington, none of the leads panned out.

On March 6, 2004, Washington's case was profiled again on AMW. Detectives say Washington was in the Nashville, Tenn. area on the night of the show -- and they say he was up to his same old tricks.

Police say Washington stole a Hummer SUV from an upscale neighborhood that night and fled to Ohio. The owner of the vehicle called the police the next day and informed them that his Hummer was equipped with OnStar, a vehicle tracking system. Detectives contacted OnStar and learned that the SUV was in Sharonville, Ohio.

With OnStar's help, the Sharonville Police Department found the vehicle parked behind a motel. An officer approached the vehicle, but Washington saw him coming. He threw the vehicle in gear and raced out of the lot.

Police say Washington led them on a high-speed chase across the town. Washington probably thought that his best chance of getting away was by finding a wooded area and disappearing on foot. 

When he spotted a public park, Washington pulled in, bailed from the moving SUV, and ran for the woods -- but he wouldn't be so lucky this time. Officers say the chase ended a short time later, when Washington made the mistake of diving into a lake to escape. The water was too cold. Washington swam back to land where cops arrested him. 

Washington sat in an Ohio jail until he was temporarily transferred to Bel Air, Md. Washington was finally going to trial for the high-speed chase he was in with the Maryland State Police in 2003, in which officers say he intentionally rammed a trooper's vehicle head on.  But once again, Washington gave officers the slip during his early morning trip to the hospital.

Terrence Washington also disappeared on January 24, 2007, with less than a week to go before a court date in Bel Air, Md.

In that escape, Washington called for guards at the Harford County Detention Center, complaining about pain in his stomach. Medical staff at the jail was called in and decided that Washington needed to be seen for treatment.

Since arriving at the detention center, police say Washington had been treated multiple times for a urinary tract infection. Once Washington was handcuffed, attached with a belly chain and leg irons, he was loaded into a police unit and transported to a nearby medical center.

A short time later, deputies arrived at the medical center, ready to escort the prisoner into the building. But when they opened the car's back door, Washington jumped out and took off running through the parking lot.

Washington disappeared into the woods behind the medical center. Several different agencies joined the hunt, canvassing the area. Police say they found Washington's prison uniform ditched near the wood line.

A short time after the escape, police received a report of a stolen pickup truck. The pickup was recovered about seven miles away in Abingdon, Md., and investigators learned that another vehicle was reported stolen in the same neighborhood.

The next morning, the second stolen vehicle was recovered off the interstate in the Mecklenburg County area of Virginia -- just a couple miles from the North Carolina border. A 1994 black GMC Sonoma with a Virginia vanity plate "BDONS" was taken from a subdivision nearby and police believed Washington was in that vehicle -- for a while.

But then that one turned up in Auburn, Ala., with some evidence that Washington had been there.  Police say shackles were found in Sonoma.  Free of his chains, police say Washington may have gone on a vandalism spree.  Several weapons were stolen from  vehicles in the area, and yet another pickup truck was taken from in front of a house.

Cops now looking for Washington say he's charming, crafty and -- above all -- mobile, so he could be anywhere in the United States.

Escapee Terrence Washington Nabbed In Arizona

He's one of the slipperiest fugitives we've ever encountered. Terrence Washington has made a career out grand theft auto, robbing banks, burglary and leading cops across the country on high-speed car chases.  He's also a prolificjail break artist. 

Once again, after five "bonus" months of freedom and evading the law from state to state, Terrence Washington is finally back behind bars.  Washington had been on the run since he escaped from a maximum-security wing of a detention center in Nashville, Tenn. in February 2008.

On Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Sgt. Doug Hardin and his team from the Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force in Phoenix were working their shift, on the lookout for suspicious cars.  As they trolled through the parking lot of the Premier Inn at 8399 W. Lynwood on the lookout for stolen tags, Sgt. Hardin's team noticed a GMC extended cab pick up truck with New Mexico plates that aroused their suspicion.

A computer check of the tags quickly confirmed their hunch that the truck was indeed stolen.  The task force officers immediately set up surveillance on the truck until a lone, Hispanic male came out of the motel and got in the vehicle. 

The officers quickly collared that suspect and learned from him that the truck actually belonged to a freind of his named "Ryan" who was in room 168 of the motel.  Armed with AR-15 assault rifles, the task force officers hit the room and took a black male into custody.  The suspect immediately identified himself as Damien Richardson. 

Damien Richardson is one of the more than 20 aliases Terrence Washington has been known to use, but at the time, Sgt. Hardin's team had no way of knowing that they had just arrested one of the most-wanted and prolific car thieves in the nation. 

Items found in the room, a treasure trove of stolen goods and identifications belonging to theft victims in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, indicated to Hardin's team that this suspect had been very mobile and quite busy. 

Among the items recovered was the empty case for a department-issued computer that had been stolen out of the car of a Maricopa Sheriff's Deputy.  That computer was not recovered.

The Hispanic male was released after "Mr. Richardson" took full responsibility for the stolen truck and hot goods.  He was booked into the most famous municipal lock up in America -- the Maricopa County Jail, run by no-nonsense Sheriff Joe Arpaio. 

On Saturday, August 2, three days after "Damien Richardson" was arrested in Phoenix, as fate would have it, AMW profiled Terrence Washington again.  Minutes after the broadcast, a Maryland State Police officer called the AMW hotline and dropped a bombshell.  The trooper said he had reason to believe that Terrence Washington might actually already be in custody in Arizona. 

It turns out that Maricopa Sheriffs had run the Damien Richardson alias when he was booked into the jail and it came back to a suspect wanted on an escape warrant in Maryland named Terrence Washington.  The suspect's fingerprint comparison had been routinely been sent by Maricopa Sheriffs to the FBI lab

From the AMW crime center, correspondent Tom Morris immediately contacted Major Kevin Carroll at the FBI Joint Fugitive Task Force in Nashville with the new developments.  First thing Sunday morning, FBI agent Dave Riker requested that Maricopa run Richardson's prints through the AFIS computer matching system. 

On the afternoon of Sunday, August 3, the AFIS fingerprint computer comparison confirmed that Terrence Washington was indeed locked up in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail. 

Billed as the 'toughest jail with the toughest sheriff in America," Washington may finally be locked up for the long haul. In addition to charges from Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, and possibly New Mexico, Washington racked up a new slew of charges.

After pleading guilty, he was sentenced on January 20, 2009, and will spend 15 years in an Arizona prison for auto theft and identity theft.