Captured prison escapee extradited back to Texas

HOUSTON

David Puckett is being extradited from Omaha, Nebraska where he was captured on Monday. Puckett escaped from a prison unit in Beaumont last week and was spotted in the Texas Medical Center in Houston trying to get medical attention for injuries he received during his escape. Puckett, 27, was serving his fifth year of a 30-year sentence for aggravated assault of a public servant out of Lavaca County.

Jason Clark with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice told us that Puckett will go to a Huntsville prison when he returns to Texas and will be reprocessed. Clark says they will then determine where Puckett will be placed, but he says Puckett will not return to the Beaumont unit.

A female aquaintance of Puckett also faces charges for allegedly wiring him money to help elude police. Police believe Puckett used a cell phone to contact Mattice Mayo from prison and ask her to wire him money. Police say he called her 297 times last fall and also maintained two Facebook pages in prison.

The Texas Corrections Chief has ordered tests of cell-phone jamming technology in response to the escape.