SMITHFIELD, Cache County — Eli Gourdin was in "total shock" when he heard Tuesday morning that his ex-wife, Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte, had shot a guard in an attempt to release her new husband George from Tennessee state custody and was captured Wednesday night.
"She was a wonderful person. A very loving, caring person," he said Wednesday night from his Smithfield home. "She loves the children dearly. She was just a wonderful mother and wife."
Tennessee state police called Gourdin to ask if he had been contacted by his ex-wife, who lived in Utah until about four years ago. Although police did not release many details, Gourdin later learned of the escape his wife had planned for George from the Roane County Courthouse.
Police believe Jennifer Hyatte went to Kingston, Tenn., on Monday with two getaway cars — a Ford Explorer in her name that was later dumped and a gold Chevrolet van stolen from one of her home-nursing clients near Nashville.
She is believed to have ambushed two guards as they were leading George Hyatte from a courthouse hearing, fatally shooting one of them — veteran Wayne "Cotton" Morgan, 56 — and then speeding away with her husband.
Authorities found large amounts of blood in the abandoned vehicle and later found that Jennifer Hyatte had been wounded.
Early last year, Jennifer Forsyth, 31, earned a diploma as a licensed practical nurse and got a job with a state contractor that took her into Northwest Correctional Complex to provide health care to state inmates.
She was fired five months later after sneaking food into the prison for Hyatte, a 34-year-old inmate with a record of robberies and escapes stretching back more than a decade. He was transferred the next month to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
But that didn't end the relationship.
Forsyth and Hyatte applied on Nov. 30, 2004, to the chaplain at the prison for permission to marry. The two were wed May 20.
George Hyatte's escape Tuesday was at least the fifth time he has gotten away from law enforcement officials. The other escapes were from local authorities in east Tennessee in 1990, 1991, 1998 and 2002.
During the escape three years ago, Hyatte and another prisoner escaped from a county jail after threatening guards with a homemade knife made out of toothbrushes and a razor blade.
When one guard turned over keys to the armed inmates, they then used them to beat another officer until he was unconscious. The escape ended a few days later when the two were captured in Florida.
Danny Wright, head of the Tennessee Highway Patrol's criminal investigation division, recalled assisting in a search for Hyatte a few years ago after he escaped from a patrol car, with another woman's help, after a convenience store robbery. Hyatte was found the next day at a home outside town, buried under a pile of clothes.
"He's pretty good at hiding," Wright said.
Hyatte's parents divorced when he was young, and he moved between the homes of relatives and state custody for years. He first entered the court system when he was 9 for school truancy and unruly behavior. By the time he was 17 he had already been through a treatment program for alcohol and drug abuse.
After dropping out of school, he racked up charges for burglary, theft, armed robbery and striking an officer. He was acquitted of aggravated rape. A presentencing report from 1993, when Hyatte was 21, described him as a repeat offender with little work history and "a tendency toward violence."
James Polk, who previously represented Hyatte as a public defender, described him as a smooth talker.
"In court, he is 'Yes, sir,' 'no, sir' and 'please.' He always had this look about him of 'Who, me?' — as if he was wrongly accused," Polk said.
The lawyer also recalled that Hyatte had a previous relationship with another nurse.
"He is kind of a ladies' man, too," he said.
Hyatte and Gourdin met while students at West Jordan High School, married in the fall of 1992 and have three children. The pair divorced in 2000 but talked once or twice a week on the phone. The last time Gourdin heard from Hyatte was Monday, when she told Gourdin how excited she was that George, her husband of three months, was going to be released.
"We don't know George, we can't judge George," said Gourdin's current wife, Katie. "You know, we've never met him. We only know what Jennifer's told us. She's very much in love with him."
As of Wednesday, Hyatte's three children, who were with Eli and Katie for the summer, had not heard about what happened to their mother. Jennifer had full custody of the kids, the oldest of which is 12 years old.
The last time the children saw Hyatte was in June, while visiting her family in Tennessee.
"I wanted to wait until there was some finality to it before I told the kids," Gourdin said. "She'd called them regularly, they had called her, she was still being a mother. So for this to happen, it was just like way out of context.
"I wish I knew why she did it," he said. "I wished I knew why so I could tell the kids, because that's going to be their biggest question, and I don't have the answer. I wish that somehow, I could talk to her and find out why."
Although the children, along with Eli and Katie, had never met George, they had all talked to him on the phone. Gourdin said, "He seemed like a great guy."
And while neighbors and family have been supportive, Gourdin said, "It's been tough," especially for so much media attention in the small town of Smithfield. The Gourdins have been contacted by press from all over the nation, including Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric.
"It's quiet," Gourdin said of the town. "At least it was. It will be again."
E-mail: astowell@desnews.com
Contributing: Associated Press