Ariz. inmate to testify in NM capital murder case

[August 26, 2013]  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The capital murder trial of an Arizona fugitive accused of killing an Oklahoma couple while on the run will resume Monday with prosecutors calling a fellow inmate to the witness stand.

The prosecution's case against John McCluskey hinges partly on the testimony of inmate Tracy Province. The two, along with an accomplice, sparked a nationwide manhunt when they escaped from a medium-security prison near Kingman, Ariz., in 2010.

Prosecutors say the trio targeted Gary and Linda Haas of Tecumseh, Okla., at a rest stop near the Texas-New Mexico state line. Tired of driving more than 1,000 miles in their cramped get-away car, they wanted the couple's pickup truck and trailer.

The Haases were carjacked at gunpoint and forced to drive to a desolate spot along Interstate 40 in eastern New Mexico. They were shot. Their bodies were burned along with their trailer and their truck was stolen.

Province is expected to detail what happened that summer day on the plains of eastern New Mexico. He could be on the stand for as many as three days.

McCluskey's defense attorneys indicated in a recent motion they intend to challenge Province's credibility.

The defense also suggested in opening statements that years of drug use had clouded Province's memory and that he had incentive to testify for the prosecution to avoid the death penalty.

Province and the accomplice, Casslyn Welch, pleaded guilty last year to numerous charges stemming from the Haases deaths. Both face life sentences.

Welch, who is also McCluskey's cousin, is expected to testify in the coming weeks.

According to court documents, Province separated from McCluskey and Welch and was arrested in northwestern Wyoming about a week after the Haases were killed. Authorities said he was found with the Haases' backpack, a Bible, a gun, a knife and other supplies.

He told authorities his plan was to overdose on heroin at Yellowstone National Park, but he decided to try to hitchhike to Indiana instead.

Province was already was serving life in prison for murder and robbery when the prison break happened.

[Associated Press; By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN]

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