Transgender sex offender and 4 others escape prison – security footage shows part of escape
The manhunt for four prisoners continues, including one transgender sex offender who escaped from the Missouri County Jail on Tuesday.
Five prisoners initially escaped, but one was captured, authorities said Friday. All five escapees were detained on charges of committing a criminal offense. The three sex offenders are still on the run, the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department said on Facebook.
Captured prisoner Michael Wilkins was not a sex offender. He was arrested without incident and is being held without bail, police said.
Prisoners Kelly McShean (also known as Larry Bembum), Dakota Pace, Aaron Sebastian, Lujuan Tucker and Wilkins used vents and pipes in the building’s plumbing system to reach the roof, St. Francois County Sheriff’s Deputy Chief Gregory Armstrong said, according to NBC. . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFoA8-EXES4
According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the cameras in the prison that could have alerted the guards to an escape, weren’t working at the time due to construction work.
“We have a very secure facility; it was human error – that’s what happened,” Sheriff Daniel Bullock of the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department told KTVI-TV.
The break from the county jail took place around 10 p.m. Tuesday after inmates forced their way through a door that was supposed to be secure.
“They went through the cell, which was supposed to be closed, found a piece of metal there that could open the door, and went up to the roof,” Bullock said.
Should a prison investigate a jailbreak?
“The chain of events was actually quite random; while doing work on the building, a ladder to the roof was left on the outside of the building. They went and stole a car not far from the facility here, about 15 minutes they drove from the county. We don’t always believe in coincidences, but it seems like a chain of stars has lined up for these guys.”
Five Missouri inmates were filmed getting into a stolen Toyota Scion minutes after escaping from the county jail on Tuesday evening.
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) January 19, 2023
“When they went to do a check to count the prisoners, that’s when they found out they weren’t there. They have been gone for several hours.”
Although a security camera outside the prison caught the inmates stealing the car, Bullock said the car could not be traced.
“The car was there with temporary plates, so we couldn’t trace it,” he said, according to KTVI. Full of gas, credit cards in the car, I mean it was all there, these guys got lucky.”
A Sheriff’s Department Facebook statement said the men drove south in a gray 2009 Scion TC with temporary Missouri plates.
The department said that Tucker, Sebastian and McShean are being held at the Missouri Department of Corrections Sex Offenders Treatment Center. Pace and Wilkins were in custody on felony warrants.
Newspaper Louis Post-Dispatch summed up their criminal past.
#VIOLATION: 5 Missouri inmates escaped prison through water pipes
#Farmington | #Missouri pic.twitter.com/myEl9bWnU9
— Bver (@HeyBver) January 20, 2023
Tucker, 37, was convicted of second-degree assault and was held at St. Francis Prison on charges of third-degree assault at a public hospital, as well as second-degree sodomy and damaging public property. His initial conviction in 2003 was for the rape of a 12-year-old girl.
McSheen, 52, a transgender prisoner, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 39-year-old woman in 2003 and pleaded guilty to multiple assault charges in 2014. He was also charged with assaulting an employee of a treatment facility for persons who committed sexual offenses.
Sebastian, 30, pleaded guilty to attempting to sodomize a 7-year-old girl in 2012. He faces first-degree sodomy charges against the alleged victims, who were aged 8 and 9, and charges of intentional violence against a treatment center employee.
Pace, 26, faces 16 felony charges of obtaining stolen property, one count of forgery and one count of identity theft. Other charges against him include forgery, carjacking, and second-degree assault.
Wilkins, 41, has been charged with second-degree burglary and violating probation. His track record includes convictions for auto theft and auto theft.
Dallas Press News – Latest News:
Dallas Local News || Fort Worth Local News | Texas State News || Crime and Safety News || National news || Business News || Health News
texasstandard.news contributed to this report.