Man linked to Clements killing arrested
Two white supremacist gang members, including one caught in a manhunt early Friday, were reportedly in contact with the man suspected of killing Colorado’s prisons chief in the days leading up to the killing, authorities said.
James Lohr, 47, was captured about 3:25 a.m., after a nearly 2-hour search that forced police to cordon off about 15 square blocks in a mostly residential area east of downtown Colorado Springs.
The other wanted man, Thomas Guolee, 31, remained on the loose. El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Jeff Kramer said he’s not aware of any leads on his whereabouts.
“We don’t have any idea where he’s located,” Kramer said.
Lohr was seen by police leaving an unidentified business on Platte Avenue east of Union Boulevard at about 1:30 a.m.
“We were working off a lot of different information that was coming in,” Kramer said. “We were doing all that we could to try to learn where he was located.”
When police tried to pull Lohr over, he fled, Kramer said.
A short pursuit ensued, and Lohr ran off when the vehicle he was driving hit a bump in the street and became disabled near Bijou Street and Hancock Avenue, Kramer said.
Lohr hid from police for nearly two hours. Police found Lohr about 3:25 a.m. in the 200 block of North Cedar Street. He was taken into custody without incident, Kramer said.
Lohr, who has the words “Hard” and “Luck” tattooed where his eyebrows would be, was booked into the El Paso County jail on suspicion of felony eluding and three outstanding warrants unrelated to the Clements homicide. He is scheduled to appear in court via video at 1:30 p.m. Monday.
Josh Hayward said police cars were parked near his house on the corner of Cedar and High Street with their sirens blaring for about a half hour sometime after 1 a.m.
“It woke me up,” he said. “So I went to see what was happening. Then I noticed flashing lights at the other end of the street.”
Hayward said he couldn’t tell what police were doing, but noticed later in the morning that it looked like someone had forced their way through two locked gates in his yard.
Lohr and Guolee are being called “persons of interest” but not suspects at this point in the shooting death of Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Authorities believe Lohr and Guolee, members of the 211 Crew prison gang, were in contact with Evan Ebel, the key suspect in Clements’ killing, in the days leading up to the March 19 shooting. Two anonymous sources told ABC News that authorities believe the men were in “frequent contact” with Ebel by phone.
Ebel, an ex-con and 211 gang member who had been paroled Jan. 28, was killed March 21 in a shootout in Texas that left a sheriff’s deputy with a grazing bullet wound to the head. Authorities believe Ebel shot Clements in the doorway of his Monument-area home. He’s also the prime suspect in the killing of pizza delivery driver Nate Leon in the Denver area two days earlier.
The sheriff’s office, the lead investigating agency in the Clements case, issued an alert Wednesday asking other law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout for Lohr and Guolee, who were described as armed and dangerous.
Their names surfaced during the investigation, but Kramer wouldn’t elaborate.
“Of course, we have knowledge from an investigative standpoint on what we believe the association of these gentlemen has been,” he said. “But until we have additional information that would suggest someone had some kind of more direct involvement … we certainly aren’t going to call them a suspect until that happens.”
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The Associated Press and Gazette reporter Matt Steiner contributed to this story.
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This combo made from photos released by the El Paso County, Colo., Sheriff’s office shows Thomas James Guolee, 31, left, and James Franklin Lohr, 47, who are wanted for questioning in the Tom Clements homicide investigation. Lohr is described as 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, with blond hair, brown eyes and several tattoos. Guolee is a 31 year old male described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, 160 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and several tattoos. (AP Photo/El Paso Sheriff) Photo by
James Franklin Lohr, 47 Photo by
FILE – This undated file photo provided by the Colorado Department of Corrections shows paroled inmate Evan Spencer Ebel. Colorado’s governor announced a sweeping review of the state’s prison and parole operations Thursday, April 4, 2013, as more evidence Photo by





