Apr 25, 2006 9:51 pm US/Central
TV Crew Plans To Re-Enact McNair Crime Scene
Minot, N.D. (AP) ―
Ward County Sheriff Vern Erck has been lining up actors, including one of his deputies, to portray a 1987 killing by a man who escaped from prison in Louisiana earlier this month.
Erck said the re-enactment of Richard McNair's case will be filmed later this week by a crew from Fox's "America's Most Wanted," to air Saturday night.
Authorities have been looking since April 5 for McNair, 47, who was sentenced to life for killing a Minnesota trucker at a Minot elevator in 1987. He escaped from a federal prison in Pollack, La.
Authorities said last week that a letter sent by McNair to his mother had been mailed in South Padre Island, Texas, leading to speculation that he might be headed for Mexico.
The letter could have been meant as a decoy, Erck said Tuesday. "He's smart enough to do that," the sheriff said.
McNair was convicted of killing Jerome Theis, of Circle Pines, Minn., at a grain elevator in Minot, on the night of Nov. 17, 1987, during a burglary attempt. Police said Theis was shot to death as he sat in his truck outside the elevator. Richard Kitzman, an elevator employee, was shot four times but survived.
"He said he could see the cylinder of the gun turning as (McNair) was shooting," said Erck, who investigated the case. "He played dead."
McNair, an Oklahoma native who had come to Minot with the Air Force, had been in the grain elevator trying to open the safe, the sheriff said, and he could have avoided both men. "He went after them," Erck said.
In the re-enactment, one of his deputies will play the role of Kitzman, Erck said. Members of the Mouse River players, a local acting group, will play other roles. Some bullet holes from 1987 are still there, the sheriff said.
"I've been in contact with the main producer for about two weeks now," Erck said. "I've got four local actors lined up for some parts, and a truck and I've got to line up a rooftop."
The rooftop will be used to re-enact a February 1988 escape, in which authorities said McNair used a lip balm to grease up his hand and slip out of handcuffs. He was captured after he jumped from the third floor of a building near a Minot hospital.
McNair escaped again in October 1992, from the North Dakota State Penitentiary, through a ventilation duct, authorities said. He was not recaptured until the following July, in Grand Island, Neb.
Federal marshals list him among 15 of the nation's most wanted criminals and a $25,000 reward is being offered for his capture. He was mentioned earlier on "America's Most Wanted," but the re-enactment is aimed at giving more details.
"I think it's going to help," Erck said of the national TV exposure. "Anytime you can get national coverage, it's going to help bring him out."
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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