LeFlore County Under Sheriff Kendall Morgan said escaped rapist Curtis Edwin Gibson was captured by authorities today in the Summerfield area.
Gibson, who has 11 Oklahoma convictions on his record, walked away from a LeFlore County minimum-security prison July 1. LeFlore County Sheriff Rob Seale said Gibson was caught after someone recognized him when he was going through a dumpster, apparently looking for food.
“He’s pretty recognizable,” Seale said. “They had that photo plastered everywhere.”
Seale said authorities were notified Gibson, 51, had been spotted at approximately 10:30 a.m. and when law enforcement personnel arrived, Gibson fled into the surrounding woods. About 30 minutes later, Gibson walked out of the woods into a cemetery, sat down and gave himself up.
“He had been up in the woods hiding out,” Seale said. “He said he was done. He was drinking out of streams or wherever he could find water. Evidently, he wasn’t finding much because he was pretty dehydrated.”
Seale said Gibson was taken to a hospital to be checked out and would return to prison when he was cleared medically. Seale said it was up to the department of corrections but he expected Gibson would face an escape charge, which carries a sentence of up to seven years.
Seale said Gibson was a medium-security prisoner with about 400 days left on his sentence when he was transferred to the Jim E. Hamilton Correctional Center in Hodgen. Gibson had been there for about four days when he escaped.
Seale said, from his discussions with prison officials, he believes Gibson fled the facility because the prison had turned down his request to be housed in protective custody rather than general population because of his sex offender status. The prison did not have the capacity to fulfill that request, Seale said.
“He made a spur-of-the-moment decision,” Seale said.
Prison officials believe Gibson ‘walked away’ from the facility on foot at approximately 4 p.m. July 1, according to Monika Benton, the assistant to the warden. Authorities lost Gibson’s track in hilly terrain north of the facility.
Gibson could face an additional two to seven years behind bars, plus the rest of the term he was serving when he escaped, authorities said. Gibson has a combined 44 years of prison sentencing.
His record in the 1990s shows rape, driving under the influence and bail jumping, while his convictions in the last decade include assault on a police officer, domestic abuse, DUI and failure to register as a sex offender, according to Oklahoma Department of Corrections records.
