Philip S. Kesner was a 23-year-old off-duty West Virginia State Police trooper when he was killed during the mass escape from the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville on the night of November 7, 1979. He and his wife, Constance Kesner, were driving past the prison shortly after 8 p.m. when inmates forced their car to stop, pulled Kesner from the vehicle and took Constance out; inmates then commandeered the car. During a struggle at about 8:15 p.m. Kesner was shot in the chest. He managed to fire his own revolver as the escapees fled; one of his rounds struck inmate James Lester Collins. Kesner was transported alive to Reynolds Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at approximately 8:53 p.m., the fatal bullet passing through his heart.

Prosecutors therefore indicted multiple recaptured escapees on murder and related counts under a theory of joint responsibility during the violent escape. Does anyone have additional information about the escapees who were indicted or eyewitness details from Moundsville that night?