Convicted murderer back in custody

AMARILLO, TX -- A convicted killer was recaptured Monday about eight hours after he escaped from a prison in Amarillo by scaling a fence, authorities said.

Marvin Garcia, 34, from El Salvador, was apprehended after authorities aboard a search plane saw someone jump from a northbound freight train that had slowed, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said.

State troopers and local law enforcement agencies converged on the area north of Amarillo near the Canadian River and U.S. Highway 287, and took Garcia into custody.

A corrections officer on patrol at the prison agency's Neal Unit in Amarillo spotted Garcia on a razor-wire fence about 3:40 a.m. and fired six shots at him, but he got over the fence and fled.

"It does not appear he had been shot," Clark said. "He did have some cuts."

Garcia will be taken to court for arraignment on felony escape charges and then returned to prison, Clark said.

Tracking dogs, Potter County sheriff's deputies and Amarillo police had joined corrections officers in the hunt for Garcia, who in June 2010 began serving a 25-year sentence for murder for fatally beating a man with a piece of wood in Harris County.

Court documents show Garcia pleaded guilty to the 2008 slaying and accepted the 25-year term. He wasn't eligible for parole until 2021, according to prison records.

The Neal Unit in Amarillo can hold about 1,300 inmates.