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Nabbed killer back in Texas

Death row inmate extradited from Louisiana

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Charles Victor Thompson escaped after changing clothes and flashing guards a fake ID.

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HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A Texas death row inmate who escaped last week from a Houston jail and was taken into custody Sunday night outside a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana, is back in Texas, a court official told CNN late Monday.

Charles Victor Thompson, 35, was the subject of a 78-hour, nationwide manhunt after he escaped Thursday by shedding his handcuffs and trading his prison jumpsuit for street clothes in a jailhouse booth after telling deputies he was meeting with a lawyer.

He was back behind bars in the same Harris County Jail on Monday night.

Earlier in the day, Thompson made an appearance before a Louisiana judge from the Shreveport jail via video feed and waived his right to counsel and extradition.

Authorities said Thompson talked his way out of the jail by showing deputies a fake ID that indicated he was with the attorney general's office.

Thompson offered authorities no resistance when arrested, said Marianne Matus, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service. (See video about the capture -- 1:49)

Matus said marshals received "several credible tips" that Thompson was in the area, and police found him about 8 p.m. on a pay phone outside a liquor store in Shreveport, about 240 miles north of Houston.

"He appeared to be intoxicated," Matus said. The officers walked up to the escaped killer and asked him his name. He told them, "You know who I am."

Authorities said Thompson had a bicycle with him.

Officers determined he was too drunk to be questioned immediately, Matus said.

Thompson was transferred early Monday to the Caddo Parish Correctional Facility, where he was booked as an out-of-state fugitive and taken to the men's mental health unit, said spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick.

He was placed alone in a cell on an escape and suicide watch, she said. Chadwick described Thompson as "mild-mannered" and compliant. "So far, he has been no problem."

But Jebran Siddiqui, a clerk at the liquor store, said the arrest was more dramatic than Matus described. Siddiqui said he was working at the shop's drive-through window when he saw "some maniac kind of guy running around outside." About the same time, he saw another man get out of a car with a shotgun.

He said Thompson was heading toward his store and he feared a shootout was in the works -- so he grabbed a gun and walked to the door.

"I was shaking, like shivering and everything, but I wasn't losing my grip," Siddiqui said. "I think he was planning to come inside the store and, I don't know, hold us hostage or something."

The man with a shotgun turned out to be an undercover police officer, and several other officers swarmed in and "took him down pretty brutally" within three feet of the store, Siddiqui said.

Thompson was convicted of capital murder in April 1999 in the shooting deaths of his former girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her friend, Darren Cain, 30. He was sentenced to death.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence, ruling that Thompson's right to an attorney had been violated during his trial.

On October 28, a second jury sentenced Thompson to death.

"I'm glad to know no one else was harmed," Cain's brother, Devin Donaghey, told CNN. "I'm glad to know that he's back in custody."

Donaghey called Thompson a "worthless piece of society."

Donaghey also had harsh words for sheriff's deputies in Harris County, which includes Houston. He said they "dropped the ball" by letting Thompson escape.

"It's not the whole Sheriff's Department's fault, but there's more to this than what's come out," Donaghey said. "What happened should've never been possible."

Lt. John Martin, of the Harris County Sheriff's Department, agreed and said an investigation has already been launched.

"There's no scenario under which it's even conceivable that someone who's on death row could simply walk out of a jail," he said. "It's not the case that any force was used. He didn't use a weapon. He simply convinced us to let him walk out the front door."

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