The U.S. Marshals Service says Jose Juan Salaz was escorted back to Texas Thursday.
He escaped in 1997 from a South Texas prison by scaling three 16-foot, razor wire-topped fences.
Salaz had been serving three concurrent 35-year sentences for aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted capital murder of a police officer.
Police records show that after he and an accomplice abducted a man, undercover Houston police officers arranged for a ransom exchange. Salaz and his accomplice opened fire on the officers, striking one in his protective vest.
