Dallas was charged with the murder of two state game wardens on January 5, 1981 in remote Owyhee County in southwestern Idaho. He eluded capture for over fifteen months, until he was arrested in northern Nevada by FBI Special Agent Franz Nenzel and SWAT officer Dave Gillan on April 18, 1982, north of Winnemucca, after he was shot and wounded in the leg during a car chase and shootout. Convicted that October and sentenced to 30 years, Dallas escaped from prison on March 30, 1986, and eluded law enforcement officials for nearly a year; he was finally apprehended outside a convenience store in the suburban southern California city of Riverside on March 8, 1987.