Fugitive Killer, Dog Trainer Waive Extradition in Jailbreak Case

ATHENS, Tenn. – A convicted killer and the dog trainer accused of helping him escape from prison in an animal crate both waived extradition Monday and will be returned to Kansas.

The trainer, Toby Young, appeared briefly before a judge in the county where she had been captured on Friday with escaped inmate John Manard. Young ran a dog rehabilitation program at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Kansas and authorities said she used her access to the prison to help Manard escape.

Manard also waived extradition Monday at hearing in Chattanooga, about 45 miles southwest of Athens.

The two had been fugitives since Feb. 12, when authorities say Manard, 27, climbed into a dog crate at the prison and was driven away by Young in a Safe Harbor Prison Dog Program van. The guard on duty never checked the crate, apparently because he trusted Young, prison officials said.

Authorities began looking for the pair in Tennessee after receiving a tip that they were using a cabin in Alpine, about 90 miles north of Chattanooga. They were later spotted by officers leaving a shopping mall in Chattanooga and were arrested after Manard wrecked their car while trying to elude capture.

Manard had been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and possession of firearms in the 1996 killing of a man during a carjacking. After the arrest, he told authorities Young was a hostage, but evidence indicated otherwise, Deputy U.S. Marshal Ray Stewart said at a news conference Saturday.

Young, who is married, said outside court that she hadn't been allowed to make phone calls and hadn't spoken to her family. Asked if she wanted to tell her family and friends anything, Young said: "I love them."

"I'm just sorry," she said.

Neither Young nor Manard said anything in court that provided new details about their escape.

While signing the extradition waiver Monday, Manard asked Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Ron Durby a question that couldn't be heard clearly, but the judge responded: "Put you in another dog cage and send you back, I imagine."