10:51 PM CST on Wednesday, December 14, 2005

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News and Staff Reports

Jeremy Desel's 11 News at 10 report | 5 p.m. report | 3 p.m. report | Interview continued

Convicted murderer Charles Victor Thompson knows a thing or two about life on the run and he talked about it publicly Wednesday for the first time after walking out of the downtown jail last month.

KHOU-TV

11 News' Jeremy Desel interviewed death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston.

Charles Thompson slipped out of the Harris County jail in street clothes after fooling four different guards. He was captured a few days later in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The death row inmate told 11 News he had been planning the escape essentially since the first day he was first sentenced to death more than six years ago.

"Probably from the day they're arrested they start thinking about it. The day you're sentenced to death it's on your mind, regularly," Charles Thompson said. "You know, man, I'd like to get out of here."

His timeline moved up as he had a retrial and was transferred back to the Harris County jail.

A new jury sentenced Thompson to death Oct. 28. He was in the county jail until he could be transferred back to prison.

When your present is nothing but razor wire, isolation and waiting for death -- the mind waders.

So for Charles Victor Thompson, the solution was escape.

His plan started with just a card. "Really, all I needed was the ID to facilitate it," he said. "And a handcuff key, which I did obtain down there [Harris Co. Jail], not here."

Thompson said he left death row with nothing but his prison ID and admitted the first error by a Harris County deputy was not getting that ID from him when he was transferred into their custody. He said he was able to hide his court clothes immediately after his death sentence by folding them up and putting them in his legal folder, which no one ever checked.

Then he simply waited for the right moment. When the time came, he changed clothes and walked out of an unlocked attorney visit room and down an elevator. After convincing guards he was with the Attorney General's office, he walked right out the front door of the Harris County Jail.

When asked what was going through his mind, Thompson replied, "Don't run, walk. When I walked down the steps and turned to walk behind vehicles I looked over my shoulder and I was expecting like a squad, a goon squad or something to come running out and tackle me. I couldn't believe it either. I was just amazed. I was like wow, I can't believe I did it."

Thompson said he then tried to carjack a vehicle, but the woman fought so much that he gave up and caught a passing train.

The inmate said the biggest part of what he called his "adventure" was simply being free after nearly seven years on death row.

He said another exciting part was riding the train that just happened to be passing by as he was running away from the jail in jogging clothes along the White Oak Bayou.

After more than two days on the train, he ended up in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he convinced two sets of Good Samaritans that he was a Katrina evacuee. Thompson was given a ride, money, clothes and a shower.

Thompson said he was using a payphone to try and reach friends overseas, hoping for money in a wire transfer. But he couldn't reach anyone, and was just beginning another round of calls when he was caught.

He said he didn't have any plans to go after anyone connected to his case or the family of his victim.

"I don't wish those people any harm," Thompson said. "There's nothing I can say that's going to make them feel better. And they probably won't be receptive to whatever I have to say. I deeply regret what I did. I live with it every day."

The inmate said he ready to escape months before at the beginning of his trial. He was able to smuggle street clothes from court appearances back to his cell two separate times. He was caught. Still, he was able to do it again at the end of his trial.

He said he was hoping to get to Canada.

Charles Thompson said he thinks he would do it all over again if he had the chance.