A multiple murderer who escaped from the Wyoming State Penitentiary on Monday was captured in Utah late Thursday night.
Officials with the Summit County sheriff's office said James Michael Wiley, 20, was arrested in the parking lot of a restaurant in Echo, Summit County, at 11:11 p.m., a little more than 72 hours after his escape from the prison in Rawlins.Wyoming authorities had spent three days searching for Wiley in eastern Carbon County, about 300 miles east of where he was captured, in what was called the biggest manhunt in recent state history.
But Wiley somehow slipped past searchers in Wyoming and made it to Utah, where he contacted his family.
Utah and federal authorities arranged Wiley's arrest with the aid of Wiley's family and two friends, according to Sgt. Larry Henley, of the Summit County Sheriff's Office.
Henley said after Wiley contacted his family, family members and friends rented a car in Salt Lake City to drive to pick up the man.
But Henley said the family and friends met with Summit County sheriff's officers first to say they wanted to help bring Wiley in without violence.
When the family and friends met Wiley in the parking lot about 25 miles west of the Wyoming border Thursday night, he was arrested by waiting officers without incident.
Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer, in a prepared statement, praised law enforcement officers for Wiley's capture.
"I want to compliment everyone who is involved in the law enforcement activities - as well as the cooperative effort of a lot of people," Geringer said. "I think everyone can rest easier, a lot easier."
Wiley, convicted in the 1990 shotgun slayings of his stepmother and three brothers, escaped with a second prisoner from the prison Monday night.
The second inmate was apprehended early Tuesday morning.
Search parties made up of officers from state, Carbon County, Albany County and Rawlins law enforcement agencies had narrowed their search to an area of eastern Carbon County.
Wiley faces charges of escape and auto theft in Wyoming stemming from the incident.
Wiley is serving a term of three life sentences and of 20 years to life, to be served concurrently, on his first- and second-degree murder convictions in the murders of his stepmother and brothers.
Wiley, 15 at the time of the shootings, was convicted of using a shotgun to kill all four family members and then setting fire to their mobile home in Thermopolis.