Fleeing Florida inmates arrested in motel

Florida authorities arrested two convicted murderers Saturday evening who had been on the lam after being released from prison with forged documents, a state agency said.

Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins were taken into custody "without incident" at 6:40 p.m. at Panama City's Coconut Grove Motor Inn, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

Members of that agency and the U.S. Marshals Service found and detained the two men, the agency said.

Authorities have been searching for Walker and Jenkins, both 34, after investigators discovered forged motions to reduce their respective sentences and forged court orders granting the requests.

Earlier Saturday, family members of both men appealed for them to turn themselves in to authorities.

"We just want you to surrender yourself to someone you trust who will bring you back in safely," Walker's mother, Lillie Danzy, said at a news conference outside the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Orlando.

Jenkins' uncle, Henry Pearson, echoed the plea, urging the men to give their families some peace.

Both families denied any knowledge in the escape plan, telling investigators and reporters the first they learned of the releases were in telephone calls from the Franklin Correctional Institution with news they could pick up their family member.

(CNN)