Hit Man Justin Welch Escapes; Murdered Mom Kimberly Smith Over Custody Dispute

​UPDATE: Escaped hit man Justin Welch is captured in Oklahoma, outsmarted and disarmed by a truck driver who gave him a ride. See update after the jump...

Kimberly Smith was involved in a bitter dispute with Darren Wold over the custody of their 4-year-old son. Wold often complained about his ex-wife to co-workers, at one point saying, "I wish I could find someone to hire to kill my ex." He apparently did. 

Kimberly Smith was found bound and stabbed in her Wisconsin home in October

​Kimberly was found in the living room of her Oconomowoc, Wisconsin home on October 1, her hands bound. She was stabbed eight times. Her son was in the home at the time but didn't see the murder.

Medical gloves and a knife missing from her kitchen were found in a nearby storm drain. DNA found in the gloves linked Justin P. Welch to the murder. Detectives believed Wold, of Lubbock, Texas, hired Welch to fly from California to Milwaukee to kill her. At least $900 was funneled to Welch through Wold's friend Jack E. Johnson.
 
Wold was extradited from Texas to Wisconsin. But Welch fled to Mexico. He was arrested near San Diego after trying to return to the U.S. in November.

Darren Wold reportedly paid just $900 to have his wife killed

​But while he was being transported in a prisoner van by North Atlantic Extradition Services early this morning, he escaped in Arkansas. Guards had stopped at a rest area to let the prisoners use the bathroom. That's when Welch used something to stab one guard, then grabbed the rent-a-cop's gun and started shooting at another. (North Atlantic is a private company out of Mississippi.)

He then fled in the van on I-40. Police picked up a signal in Little Rock from the phone Welch stole from the stabbed guard, but he's believed to be headed to Mexico. Since he's looking at a life sentence, investigators believe he's armed and dangerous and feeling like he has nothing to lose.

UPDATE: Rent-a-cops violate all sorts of protocol, leading to hit man's escape.

Guards from North Atlantic Extradition Services are bound by contract to abide by all sorts of protocols when transporting bad guys. But it appears the rent-a-cops blew them off, leading to Justin Welch's escape.

They were only supposed to stop at jails for bathroom breaks during a trip from California to Wisconsin. But they decided to stop at a rest area in Arkansas instead.

Guard Marian Pulliam actually slept in the van -- yes, slept -- while guard Michael Nowland led Welch and four other prisoners to the rest room. Welch had somehow gotten a hold of a screwdriver and stabbed Nowland in the hand, head and neck. He took his gun and cell phone, then took a cell and jacket from a truck driver also using the bathroom.

He unlocked his shackles and emerged to fire a few shots at the sleeping Pulliam before escaping in the transport van. Since then, there's been no sign of Welch or the van, which isn't equipped with a GPS.

Nowland has been released from the hospital, and Pulliam was uninjured.

Aside from murdering a woman in her home, Welch has previous arrests for robbery, auto theft and battery.  

UPDATE II: Justin Welch is captured after hitching ride with the wrong truck driver.

At a truck stop in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Welch asked driver TJ Lyon for a ride. But attendants told him the man looked a lot like a guy they saw in the newspaper -- a hit man wanted for escaping his guards.

Lyon apparently gave him a ride anyway. He then texted his sister, saying the man in his truck was wanted for murder and had a gun. The driver's mom is a dispatcher in Provo, Utah, so she contacted police in Oklahoma.

Cops in Oklahoma pulled over the truck. Welch grabbed for his gun, but he was disarmed by Lyon before he knew what hit him.

Final score: TJ Lyon 1, Welch 0.