Fugitives in Sexual Offenses Arrested
By Ed Timms
Originally published in The Dallas Morning News, June 16, 2001
A week after a list of 10 "High Profile Fugitive Sex Offenders" who preyed on children appeared on the Internet, six are in custody.
The list, which is posted on the Texas Department of Public Safety's Web site, is part of a stepped-up effort to protect Texans from sex offenders.
It was developed in response to a series of crimes by Gary Dale Cox, a convicted sex offender and escaped parolee who fatally shot himself last month after a Kerr County sheriff's sergeant confronted him. An 11-year-old girl he'd abducted was with Mr. Cox when he was found.
Authorities believe that Mr. Cox was responsible for several sex crimes, including abductions or attempted abductions of young girls, after he violated his parole.
The Texas Department of Corrections' Parole Division also recently imposed additional restrictions of movement on sex offenders who've been placed in the Super-Intensive Supervision Program, the most restrictive level of parole.
"Our communities and our children are very important to us," said Capt. Tony Marshall, a DPS investigator based in Garland who investigates crimes in a 46-county area that stretches from Wichita Falls to Texarkana. "We want them off the street."
The men on the list have criminal histories that include sexually victimizing children. Their selection also was based on other criminal acts and their propensity for violence. They are among 166 parolees with records of sex offenses who've absconded after being placed in the SISP program.
Parolees in the SISP program are monitored electronically and closely supervised.
Law enforcement officials say that these sex offenders pose potential threats to the public.
"We consider these offenders who have fled their parole to be highly likely to commit additional sex crimes," said Col. Thomas A. Davis Jr., director of the DPS.
Authorities believe that one of the offenders who appeared on the list—and since has been taken into custody—committed at least one sex offense involving a child after breaking parole.
DPS Lt. Tim Ferguson, an investigator in Austin, said that when offenders on the list are apprehended, "we do extensive interviewing and backtracking to figure out what they've been doing, where they've been."
That process is under way with the six parolees in custody.
Five were arrested in Texas. And a tip led authorities to Dannie Lee Garrard, 49, who was arrested June 9 in California. Mr. Garrard's criminal history, according to the DPS Web site, includes the rape of a 9-year-old girl in Anson, Texas, and the abduction of a young woman in Fritch, Texas, who managed to flee.
Of the four parolees still at large, two are from Dallas: Curtis Lee Evans, 42, was convicted of indecency with a child and a weapons charge; Wilbert Lynn Blackerby's multiple criminal convictions include a sexual assault involving a 13-year-old girl.
Michael Angelo Solis, whose last known address was in Abilene, sexually assaulted a 3-year-old girl. Hilmon Lee Sumrall of Beaumont abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl in Harris County and sexually assaulted a 5-year-old girl in Houston County.
Capt. Marshall said that the fugitive sex offender program will continue and that as those who appear on the list are taken into custody, others will be added.
"We want them to know that they cannot hide," said Tela Mange, a DPS spokeswoman.
