Three escaped prisoners from the Mower County Jail return to Austin today to make a first appearance in Mower County Third Judicial District Court.

Friday, March 30, 2001

Three escaped prisoners from the Mower County Jail return to Austin today to make a first appearance in Mower County Third Judicial District Court.

Vernon Neal Powers Jr., 28, and Scott Perry Christian, 30, both of St. Paul, will be returned under heavy guard from the Oak Park Heights maximum security prison near St. Paul.

David Kenneth Christian, 28, and a brother of Scott Perry Christian, also will be returned under heavy guard from St. Marys Hospital in Rochester.

The trio will make a first appearance at 3 p.m. in a Mower County courtroom before either District Judge Donald E. Rysavy or Fred A. Wellmann.

Powers and the Christian brothers were arrested last summer and charged with the killings of two St. Paul roofers and the wounding of a third at the Downtown Motel in Austin. A fourth suspect, Jenea Larae-Nichol Weinand, 19, of St. Paul, also is in custody in connection with the case.

Powers and the Christian brothers escaped from the Mower County Jail early Sunday morning. They overpowered two guards and jumped from a second-story window to the parking lot outside the Austin-Mower County Law Enforcement Center.

Waiting nearby was a getaway car driven by Gabrielle Skye Holvick, 18, of Austin, who befriended the trio after their arrest on June 30 and visited them in the jail.

Powers and Scott Perry Christian left behind David Kenneth Christian, who suffered a broken leg when he jumped. He was taken into custody, while the other two were driven to the Twin Cities area.

A day after their escape, Holvick was arrested at her grandmother’s home in Austin and charged with aiding and abetting the escape. She is being held in the Mower County Jail, pending arraignment next week.

The escaped pair were harbored in an Oakdale home, where a 40-year-old mother, her 19-year-old daughter and the daughter’s 1-year-old child live.

Acting on an anonymous tip, the Minnesota Bureau of Crime Apprehension and Minnesota Fugitive Task Force, among other agencies, recaptured the pair without incident Tuesday, less than 54 hours after their escape.

All three were indicted by a Mower County grand jury last August on first-degree premeditated murder charges.

They originally were slated to stand trial on the murder charges together and jury selection for the trial still is scheduled to begin April 9 before Rysavy in Austin.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.