Inmate in U.S. manhunt has Pa. criminal record

HELENA, Mont. - August 11, 2010 -- An escaped Arizona inmate and his fiancee may now be in northwest Arkansas and are suspects in an armed robbery, the U.S. Marshal's Service said.

An Arizona prisoner whose escape has triggered a national manhunt has a Pennsylvania criminal record for convenience store robberies in Lancaster County.

John McCluskey served 14 years in Pennsylvania state prisons for a string of crimes in April 1992. He was paroled to a halfway house three years ago.

Court records show he pleaded guilty in January 1993 to three counts of robbery, assault, conspiracy and other charges.

Authorities say McCluskey and his fiancee Casslyn Welch are suspects in an armed robbery of a business in Arkansas on Wednesday morning.

McCluskey and two other inmates escaped from an Arizona prison on July 30. Authorities say forensic evidence has linked McCluskey, Welch and one of the other men to the deaths of a couple in New Mexico.

The other two inmates have been recaptured.

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