The Austin Police Department on Friday arrested the UT student who they say fled to Mexico with murder suspect Colton Pitonyak last week.
Laura Hall, a UT government senior, is charged with hindering apprehension, a third-degree felony. Bond has been set at $175,000, said APD spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz.
Pitonyak, a UT finance junior, is charged with the first-degree murder of Jennifer Cave, 21, who was found dead in Pitonyak's West Campus apartment Thursday. Austin police found Cave with a gunshot wound and dismembered limbs.
Hall and Pitonyak left for Mexico Wednesday night, Aug. 17, in her Cadillac, according to an arrest warrant for Hall. Hall told police she went willingly, according to the warrant. Mexican authorities detained Pitonyak and Hall and brought them to Eagle Pass for immigration violations early the following Tuesday, Aug. 23. Hall was released to her father, Loren Hall, and Pitonyak was held in Eagle Pass until Thursday morning when he returned to Austin in custody.
Hall's and Pitonyak's flight to Mexico seemed straight out of "Bonnie and Clyde," Said Aziz, Hall's friend, told police.
Hall told police that she and Pitonyak left Austin for Mexico at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. Police say Hall's car, a dark-green, 1994 Cadillac, was photographed at the Eagle Pass entrance to Mexico at 2:41 a.m. Thursday.
The two "just hauled in her Cadi," Hall told her friend, Said Aziz, according to the warrant. "I have been all up in this shit since like two hours after shit started," Hall told Aziz the day after she and Pitonyak were apprehended, according to the warrant.
Hall walked into a Holiday Inn in Piedras Negras, just across the border from Eagle Pass, sometime on Friday, police say. The front desk clerk, Pedro Fernandez, told police she asked if there was an available room.
When he told her there was, Pitonyak entered the hotel. He showed identification and payed for the room with his credit card, Fernandez told police.
Hall and Pitonyak told Fernandez they wanted to drive to Cuernavaca, about 700 miles south of Piedras Negras, and used a computer to look for flights, the warrant says.
Hall and Pitonyak approached Fernandez over the weekend, he told police, and said they needed money. Fernandez told police they asked for his help selling the Cadillac despite not having the title.
Fernandez says he suggested they go back to the U.S. and get it. They both said they could never go back, Fernandez told police. He said Hall asked Pitonyak several times to shut up.
Fernandez told police Pitonyak asked if Mexico extradites. "What did you do?" Fernandez told him, according to the warrant. "Did you kill a cop or something?"
Fernandez says Pitonyak replied: "Don't roll on me."
Fernandez told police Hall acted like Pitonyak's girlfriend. "[Colton is] the most generous, kindest person that I have even been blessed to spend time with," reads Hall's facebook profile. Her profile says she is "In a Relationship."
On Monday evening, Laura Hall's father, Loren Hall, called the Austin Police Department. The father told police his daughter had emailed him, the warrant says. She asked him to remove all of her belongings from her Austin apartment.
Loren Hall told police he suspected his daughter was with Pitonyak, who he said was an acquaintance. He gave police a description of the Cadillac, and they traced it to Eagle Pass.
At 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, the warrant says a confidential informant helped Mexican police find the car outside the Holiday Inn. They knocked on Pitonyak's and Hall's door at 1:35 a.m. The two were deported.
Fernandez told police that Hall called his cell phone before they were deported and said, "Don't tell anyone" and hung up. Hall was not arrested and left for Tarpley, Texas, the warrant says.
Hall's voicemail said she could be reached at the Carribbean Cowboy RV park in Tarpley, approximatly halfway between Austin and Eagle Pass. RV park employees said they don't know why their number would be left on Hall's cell phone.
Said Aziz told police that he talked to Hall four times on Tuesday. She called him twice at around 6:30 a.m., the warrant says. Hall told Aziz she would tell police that she and Pitonyak were on vacation. At 11:30 a.m., Aziz told police Hall called Jennifer Cave's death "an accident." "There is a big difference between manslaughter and first degree murder," Hall said, according to the warrant.
She and Aziz talked a fourth time at about 3:35 p.m., as he was on his way to APD headquarters. Aziz told police Hall began to deny knowing about Cave's death and seemd distraught and confused. She told police she had no knowledge of Cave's murder.
Pitonyak's bail is set at $1 million, and his lawyer, Samuel E. Bassett, said he will plead not guilty. The Eagle Pass sheriff, Tom Herrera, said Pitonyak was under constant suicide watch for the two days he was at the Maverick County Jail. Herrera said jail officials checked on Pitonyak about every 15 minutes.
People who have seen Pitonyak since his arrest say he seemed calm. Bassett said he was cooperative when a colleague visited him in Eagle Pass.
Additional reporting by Adam H. Covici and Noelene Clark
Be the first to comment on this article!