Seaside `Thrill Kill' Suspect Arrested At Mexican Border

ASTORIA, Ore. - One of two suspects in last summer's "thrill kill" of a couple on a Seaside beach is behind bars in Texas today, arrested as he tried to cross into the United States from Mexico.

Jesse Carl McAllister, 21, was stopped Saturday by U.S. Customs agents at a border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis said in a news conference today.

Marquis said there was no indication how much time McAllister has been spending in Texas. "Whether he crossed for the first time or the 50th time, I have no idea," he said.

McAllister was expected to waive extradition and could be back in Astoria "within a few days" to face aggravated murder charges, the prosecutor said.

His alleged accomplice, Bradley Charles Price, 22, remains at large, and is believed to be still in Mexico.

The two fled south of the border after the July 14, 1997, slaying of Gabriella Brooke Goza, 26, and Frank Nimz, 36. The couple were shot in the head as they sat on the beach waiting for sunrise. Police say it was a random killing based on the movie version of Truman Capote's true-crime book "In Cold Blood," which the suspects had rented at least four times in the month before the slayings.

In the movie, killers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith fled to Mexico after intending to rob a farm family. They killed them, apparently on a whim, when they could not find any money. Both men were captured and hanged.

And, akin to the movie, McAllister told friends in Seaside that the murders were committed "just for the hell of it," according to an affidavit filed with prosecutors.