The mother of prison escapee John McCluskey's been sentenced to seven months in prison for helping her son and two other inmates evade authorities after they escaped from prison last summer.
Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Steven Lynch could have sentenced Claudia Washburn to 2 1/2 years behind bars under a sentencing range laid out in a plea agreement reached in November.
Washburn admitted to sending money to her convict son and his two accomplices after they escaped from a Kingman prison on July 31.
That money was used by the cons to fund what became a multi-state
nightmare for authorities, as the cons crisscrossed the western half of
the United States following their escape.
While on the run,
McCluskey, his cousin/fiancee Casslyn Welch, and escaped inmate Tracy
Province, are accused of murdering an Oklahoma couple on vacation in New
Mexico.
The bodies of Linda and Gary Haas, both 61, from
Tecumseh, Oklahoma, were found in a burned out camper allegedly torched
by the trio of fugitives.
The couple, who were about to become grandparents, were on their annual summer trip to Colorado when their paths crossed with the escaped inmates.
Authorities believe the couple met the inmates at a rest area along Interstate 40 in eastern New Mexico.
It's
believed the couple was shot in their travel trailer before the
inmates, and Welch, drove it to a remote area, unhitched the couple's
truck, and set it on fire with the bodies inside.
McCluskey, Welch and Province could each face the death penalty for the murders.
