More charges have been filed against two Alabama fugitives accused of shooting at officers in southwestern North Dakota’s Stark County, robbing a Dickinson movie store and being involved in a chase and standoff with law enforcement near Gladstone.
The pair were with two others, including a man who was serving a life sentence for killing Michael Bryant of Elkmont in 2003, during an escape from a Perry County detention facility in May.
Twenty-two-year-old Ashton Mink and his 25-year-old wife Jacquelin Mink have been charged with attempted murder and a second count of criminal conspiracy to commit murder.
The couple, along with Ashton Mink’s sister, 25-year-old Angela Mink, and 26-year-old Joshua Southwick, were charged earlier with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and criminal conspiracy to commit robbery.
Authorities say Southwick and Ashton Mink escaped from an Alabama prison in May. Angela, who is Ashton’s sister, and Jacquelin Mink, his wife, allegedly helped them.
Southwick, who was from Michigan, was in jail after pleading guilty in 2007 in the murder-for-hire scheme in Bryant’s death. He also received 20 years for burglary in connection with the crime. Another man, James Mason Duncan, also pleaded guilty in the plot and was sentenced to life in prison. A third man was acquitted of the crime.
Southwick, who was 25 in 2007, was taken to the privately owned Perry County facility in March, after first being housed at Kilby Correctional Facility near Montgomery and then Draper Correctional, according to Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett.
Ashton Mink of Madison was serving time in the Perry County facility for an attempted murder conviction in Madison County in 2005. He was scheduled for release in 2028.
The North Dakota state attorney said the four fugitives likely will serve sentences there before being returned to Alabama to face any charges here.
