Las Vegas Sun

April 26, 2024

Convicted Nebraska killer found in Las Vegas after escape

This undated photo from the Nebraska Correctional Services Department shows inmate Anthony Gafford.

This undated photo from the Nebraska Correctional Services Department shows inmate Anthony Gafford.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Federal authorities in Las Vegas have arrested a convicted killer who escaped from a Nebraska work-release correctional center almost two weeks ago.

Nebraska prison officials say 40-year-old Anthony Gafford left the Community Corrections Center in Lincoln on Jan. 26 and never returned. Deputy U.S. Marshal William Iverson in Lincoln said Friday that marshals took Gafford into custody without incident Thursday night.

In 1997, at age 19, Gafford was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in the killing of 16-year-old Jacque Holbert in Omaha.

Holbert's 21-year-old son, Jacque "Jack" Holbert IV, was fatally shot while lying in a bed in a home in Omaha on Jan. 20 — six days before his father's killer escaped.