http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2003/July/23/news/PrisGuard.html
Suspect An Ex-Prison Guard
By Marcus Blair
TIMES RECORD • MBLAIR@SWTIMES.COM
POTEAU — A man suspected of ambushing and killing a couple at a remote campground was once a prison guard, officials said.
LeFlore County authorities and prison officials confirmed Tuesday that Edward Leon Fields, 36, of Wister worked about three years as a guard at Jim E. Hamilton Correctional Center near Hodgen.
Additional details about his employment will not be available until today, said an employee of the public relations division of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
Fields was arrested Friday evening at Kenco Plastics in Poteau, where he worked. He is suspected of killing Charles and Shirley Chick of Hurst, Texas, at a campground in the Winding Stair Mountains.
A hiker found the couple shot to death on July 11. Analysts with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation removed .22-caliber bullets from the bodies and determined that six fibers found at the campground were made of burlap, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
A LeFlore County woman told police she had been friends with Fields for four years and they lived together until June, according to the affidavit. Since then, Fields has been living in campgrounds around Wister Lake and Talimena Drive, the woman told police.
During the time they lived together, Fields showed the woman a .22-caliber rifle with a scope and a camouflage suit made of rope-like material, the affidavit states.
In June, Fields and the woman went shopping and Fields bought .22-caliber bullets and burlap bags. When she asked the purpose of the items, Fields told the woman, “you don’t want to know,” and then cut the burlap bags into strips and tied them around the rifle.
Last week, Fields called the woman and told her he was going to commit suicide because he had “done something real bad,” the affidavit states. Fields told the woman he had “snuck up on some people in their car” before putting on the camouflage suit, sneaking toward them and watching them.
When agents arrested Fields, they found a camouflage suit known as a “gilly suit” lying in the back of Fields’ pickup, the affidavit states.
A rifle believed to be the murder weapon was found inside the pickup, the affidavit states.
FBI spokesman Gary Johnson said investigators “have a pretty good idea” about a motive for the killings, but he declined to elaborate. Johnson said Fields, 36, didn’t know the victims.
The case may be presented to a grand jury next week.
The Chicks were avid campers and had been married about 20 years, a friend told the Dallas Morning News. Charles Chick, 47, worked for Lockheed-Martin and Shirley Chick, 50, was a freelance computer programmer.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.
