DICKINSON, N.D. (AP) — The last of four people involved in a springtime standoff in North Dakota that followed an Alabama prison break have pleaded guilty to charges including attempted murder, robbery and reckless endangerment.
Joshua Southwick, Angela Mink and her brother, Ashton Mink, entered their pleas Tuesday.
Prosecutors said the move was prompted by an earlier guilty plea from Ashton Mink’s wife, Jacquelin, and her decision to testify against the others. She pleaded guilty Dec. 18 to reckless endangerment and conspiracy to commit robbery.
“When she decided that for whatever reason that she was going to turn state’s evidence, I think they were faced with the fact that they were going to have to get on the stand in order to rebut anything that she said,” said Stark County State’s Attorney Tom Henning. “Well, once you’re on the stand, then you’ve opened yourself up.”
Authorities believe Angela Mink and Jacquelin Mink helped Southwick and Ashton Mink escape from the Perry County Detention Center in Uniontown, Ala., in May. Southwick had pleaded guilty to murder and burglary in Alabama. Mink was serving time for attempted murder.
The four are believed to have eluded law enforcement in at least seven states until a robbery at the Movie Gallery video store in Dickinson around midnight on June 5. The fugitives fled the scene and holed up in an outbuilding on a ranch near Gladstone, authorities said.
They were apprehended following shootouts with law enforcement.
Southwick pleaded guilty to attempted murder for shooting at a trooper. Ashton Mink pleaded guilty to robbery and reckless endangerment, and Angela Mink pleaded guilty to robbery.
They will be sentenced at a later date. Henning said the defendants also would likely be prosecuted in Alabama and noted the men still have their remaining prison sentences.
“These folks are going to be in jail for a long time,” he said.
State and Nation
December 23, 2009
3 plead guilty in June standoff, shootout in ND
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