Escaped Kentucky Inmates Apprehended in Georgia

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While America was watching the Super Bowl Sunday night, two Kentucky inmates escaped from the Logan County jail. The men were armed and considered extremely dangerous, but fortunately, their mad dash for freedom ended Monday morning in Tifton, Georgia.

"There's an electric mechanism inside this door, and somehow they got this wire in there and it will pull the striker back and let the door trip open."

Logan County jailer Bill Jenkins knows how the inmates broke through his tight security, but he doesn't understand it. The locks on the jail doors are supposed to be escape-proof, but Sunday night, while nearly everyone in building was watching the Super Bowl, 22-year-old David Harrison and 20-year-old Jason Gaston got out and ran for freedom.

"One of them was being held on a murder charge and the other for an arson," Jenkins said.

Once out of their living quarters, the suspects kicked open a door in the jail's Sallyport - the garage officers use to bring prisoners in. According to officials, the men then ran through a nearby creek and headed for the railroad tracks.

"A motorist saw them in orange and called in."

Authorities searched for the escapees all night, but once the men hit tracks, they were gone. In the frigid weather, investigators knew they men couldn't have gone far without help.

"We got a tip last night. We believed they were heading to Florida with a girlfriend or an acquaintance of Harrison," said Sheriff Wallace Whittaker.

33-year-old Rose Rogers had apparently picked the men up in her Pontiac. Authorities told agents from here south to be on the lookout, and just after 10:00 a.m., their sunny vacation ended abruptly when a Georgia trooper pulled them over for speeding.

"Harrison was driving, and Gaston was a passenger in the vehicle."

"I'm more than glad they've been caught."

One of those inmates tried to escape once before in November. Authorities told News 2 David Harrison threw bleach into a deputies eyes, but he was quickly apprehended. Because of this escape, officials have shut down the cell block where the inmates were living until the security company can determine how their door locks failed and try to fix the problem.

News 2

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2003


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