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07/23/2008: "Yeah, But Could I Get His Diet Plan Before You Fry Him?"

Is dumbass contagious? I ask, because here comes our second true tale of intelligent behavior from the Lonestar State ...

They don't mess around with capital punishment down in Texas. As the aforementioned Ron White once said, "If you kill someone in Texas, we'll kill you back." So I can understand why Darryl Layne Norris, awaiting trial in Houston for the murder of a convenience store clerk, might want to find a way out of jail. He found it all right - and now he's the envy of every diet plan dropout.

Investigators believe Norris intentionally lost 30 pounds over the past three months so he could fit between the one foot wide air vent in his cell.

When Norris was arrested he weighed 160 pounds. Waller County Sheriff Randy Smith estimates Norris lost nearly 30 pounds to fit through that vent. Although Norris shared a cell with approximately five other inmates, he was the only one who escaped.

Now comes the dumbass part. Norris escaped on Saturday morning, but was recaptured last night - swimming in a Houston-area hotel swimming pool.

"We got a tip that there was a prisoner charged with murder, among other things, and we came over here and were able to find him," said Stephen Casko with the Houston Police Department.

"We found him. He walked out to the pool, got in the pool, he was taken into custody while he was in the pool," Casko said.

Run, Forrest, run ...