East Texas

By BETTY WATERS
Staff Writer

HENDERSON -- Sidney Ira Campbell, previously one of Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives and America's Most Wanted, refused to plead guilty in court, despite having entered a plea agreement earlier with the prosecution.

Consequently, the case will be scheduled later for a jury trial, according to officials.

Campbell did not plead guilty in Fourth Judicial District Court, even though he had signed an offer from the district attorney's office to recommend a sentence of nine years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice institution in exchange for a guilty plea from Campbell on a charge of assault of a public servant, a third-degree felony.

Campbell, 25, is accused of jumping on and striking Kilgore police officers Terry Linder and Roy Nixon, who were executing a felony warrant on April 5, 2006, for Campbell at his mother's home in Kilgore. Campbell allegedly fled through the woods.

The proposed plea agreement would have taken into consideration and also resolved the warrant for Campbell on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child on June 1, 2005, in Rusk County. He allegedly assaulted a girl, then age 14, after kicking in the door of a home.

At the time, Campbell was on probation, having been released from prison on Jan. 25, 2005, after serving about two years of a five-year sentence for burglary of a habitation. The sentence was imposed after he violated conditions of deferred adjudication community supervision.

Campbell was named to Texas Department of Public Safety's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in October 2006 and America's Most Wanted list in June 2008. He was captured last September after eluding authorities for nearly three years. At the time, Campbell was living in Louisiana under the name of his deceased grandfather, William Moore.

Law enforcement authorities in Rusk County, the U.S. Marshal's Joint East Texas Fugitive Task Force, Texas Department of Public Safety, U.S. marshals in Del Rio and Fort Worth and Louisiana officers worked to apprehend Campbell.

Campbell is being held in the Rusk County Jail in lieu of several bonds totaling approximately $140,000 on numerous charges filed in several counties. They include a $25,000 bond on the charge filed in Rusk County of aggravated assault of a public servant and a $75,000 bond on the charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child, also filed in Rusk County.

Two bonds of $15,000 each are on two charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, one filed by Kilgore Police Department and one filed by Gregg County.

Bonds were set at $2,000 each on four charges of theft of property in Panola County and another $2,000 bond was set on a charge of giving false information in Rusk County.