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Convict wanted on parole violations causes W. Va. standoff

U.S. Marshals and Kanawha sheriff’s deputies pulled Miguel Quinones, 35, from the attic of Shawnique Hudson’s Hillcrest Drive townhouse Tuesday

By Ashley B. Craig
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A convicted murderer on the run from parole violations for two years was found hiding in a the attic of a Charleston townhouse Tuesday, authorities said.

U.S. Marshals and Kanawha sheriff’s deputies pulled Miguel Quinones, 35, from the attic of Shawnique Hudson’s Hillcrest Drive townhouse Tuesday afternoon.

Quinones was wanted on multiple warrants from 2010, including one from the state Division of Corrections charging him with violating his parole, said Jeremy Honaker, a supervisory deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service. He also was wanted in Mercer County for being a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of crack cocaine with intent to deliver

Marshals had been searching for him for two years when they received a tip that he was staying at Hudson’s apartment. Marshals went at about 2 p.m. to the apartment to search for him.

Hudson, a friend of Quinones, was in the apartment with her toddler son when Marshals arrived, Honaker said. Chief Deputy Tim Goode said the woman told Marshals that Quinones wasn’t in the apartment.

“When we came in, he obviously knew we were coming, he secreted himself in the attic,” Goode said. “They’re not very big attics and he was hiding up in there.”

Marshals called in the Kanawha Sheriff’s SWAT team to help secure the area and search for Quinones. Authorities secured the apartment and went through the apartment complex to search and alert residents of the situation.

After determining Quinones was in Hudson’s apartment, they went through the housing complex urging people to stay away from the apartment. They also planned to stop a school bus that was scheduled to drop off children on the hill.

Authorities used a thermal imager to find a heat source, believed to be Quinones, in the attic, he said. Authorities sent tear gas into the attic because of Quinones’ criminal history.

“They deployed gas up in the attic, heard him stirring around, and they realized he was there,” Goode said. “They went in and had to physically drag him out.

“He wasn’t going easy.”

No injuries were reported.

Hudson was being questioned Tuesday evening, Honaker said. She could face charges for lying to federal agents.

“There is a possibility that we will in fact charge her with lying to federal law enforcement officers,” Goode said. “If you’re harboring you can get up to five years for harboring a fugitive or lying to a federal officer if you know where a person is.

“In this case when we came into the residence she said he wasn’t there and we know that not to be the case.”

Honaker said authorities nearly had Quinones earlier this year after he was arrested in Lebanon, N.J. for domestic battery. Hudson was the alleged victim in that matter, he said.

Quinones gave authorities a Massachusetts driver’s license with the name Eric Hernandez. He was released before the 10-point fingerprint scan revealed his identity as Quinones, the marshal said.

Honaker said New Jersey police went to the hotel where the couple had been staying but found only Hudson.

Quinones was released from Stevens Correctional Center in McDowell County on parole in December 2009. In 2000, Quinones and two others were convicted in the 1995 murder of Christopher Dennis Reardon, 49, of Oak Hill. Quinones was a juvenile at the time of the murder.

The murder occurred during a drug deal, according to court records. Authorities found Reardon shot to death in a van that had been pushed into a creek.

Quinones was still awaiting trial when he escaped from the Eastern Regional Detention Center in Martinsburg. Prosecutors had petitioned to have him tried as an adult in the murder but Quinones had filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court over the matter, leaving his case in a holding pattern.

He had been at the juvenile center for seven months when he and another teen overpowered a guard, locked her in a cell and then took her car keys, according to the Hagerstown, Md., Herald-Mail newspaper. Quinones also took his records from the facility.

The teens were found weeks later.

In addition to the state charges filed against him, Quinones also will likely face charges over the firearms found in the apartment. Honaker said several firearms were in plain view when officers went into the home. Those weapons also were within reach of Hudson’s child, he said.

Kanawha sheriff’s deputies were waiting at the apartment Tuesday night for a search warrant and planned to search the apartment later in the evening.

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