SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — An Eastern State Hospital escapee and his suspected accomplice have been arrested in Nevada.
Twenty-eight-year-old Jamil M. Fields and 26-year-old Janine E. Ludwig were arrested in Reno, Nev. on Friday. The two are still in Reno pending extradition back to Spokane County and are both facing charges related to the escape.
Deputies with the Spokane Valley Police Department (SVPD) were notified for an Eastern State Hospital patient, later identified as Fields, who reportedly walked away from Valley Hospital where he was receiving medical treatment on Wednesday.
Fields was committed to Eastern State Hospital in 2022 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in relation to a drive-by shooting in Whitman County.
Investigators working to locate Fields received information that Fields may have walked away from the offsite medical appointment with the help of a female accomplice. It was later determined the female, later identified as Ludwig, and Fields checked into a local motel in Reno.
SVPD contacted the Reno Police Department and notified them of what was going on. On Friday, police in Reno arrested the pair and booked them into jail.
Fields is now facing a second-degree escape charge. Ludwig is charged with second-degree rendering criminal assistance and assisting the escape of a patient.
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