"He was at the wrong place with the wrong person at the wrong time," said Rhonda Reese, the stepmother of recently captures prison escapee Curtis Reese.
Rhonda Reese hasn't rested for days.
"I've had very few nights of sleep," she said.
Not because police believed a convicted murderer could have been near her Benton home, but because of what police might do to him when they caught him.
"We all love him," she said. "I'm sorry for what the rest of the nation thinks but we love him."
Curtis Reese escaped from Tucker Maximum Security Prison, Monday. Department of Correction officers say he climbed into a water tank on top of an 18-wheeler, later jumped off and ran.
"He didn't deserve to be where he was at and he finally found a way out and he took it," said Reese.
U.S. Marshalls arrested Reese Thursday morning in Clebourne County after finding him hiding in a cave.
"I wish he would have made it," said his stepmother. "I wish he would have stayed gone and went to Mexico and lived his life."
Reese's stepmother, along with his other family members in Benton, believe Reese was wrongfully convicted of murdering two young men in Saline County 15 years ago and that he shouldn't be in jail in the first place.
"He was wrongfully accused and we didn't have $10,000 dollars to get him a lawyer when it happened," she said.
But after running from law enforcement for four days, it'll be at least 13 more years before his family sees him on the outside again.
"I don't think he wanted to harm anybody. He just wanted away."
Reese faces additional years to be added to his original 40-year sentence because of the escape but a judge has yet to rule on what that additional sentence will be.
