Two Who Escaped from Arkansas Jail Recaptured
Two detainees were back in custody a week after breaking out of W.C. “Dub” Brassell Adult Detention Center in Arkansas’ Jefferson County on January 22, 2024. Noah Roush, 22, and Jatonia Bryant, 23, cut a hole in the ceiling of a shower, another in the roof above that, and then climbed down once outside to flee.
The pair got a 36-hour head-start thanks to an inaccurate head count by jail staffers, who took that long to discover they were missing. But Sheriff Lafayette Woods, Jr. blamed “flaws in the design and structure of the jail” that “allowed the pair to break free.” As for the miscount, he chalked that up to staff shortages; instead of its full complement of 48 guards, the jail was operating with only 20.
Roush was captured first when tipped-off authorities found him near an abandoned home in Pine Bluff on January 25, 2024. He was originally picked up in July 2023 for stealing a window air conditioner from a home, following a brief vehicle chase by the resident’s boyfriend. At that time, Roush was serving a five-year probated sentence for cashing three bogus checks in December 2022 and stealing a moped in May 2022. After recapture, he was charged with second-degree escape, and his bail was set at $500,000.
Bryant was apprehended without incident on January 29, 2024, while walking down a street in Pine Bluff. He had originally been detained on a capital murder charge for the July 2023 shooting death of Christopher Harris, 49. Bryant also was charged with escape, but he was given no bond, and bonds for two other outstanding battery charges—one against his child’s mother in February 2020 and another for a street shooting in March 2022—were revoked.
With a $25,000 reward offered for information leading to Bryant’s recapture, the sheriff’s office said not a day passed without a tip as to his whereabouts. After he and Roush were back in jail, deputies promised to bring criminal charges against anyone they find who assisted them in their escape.
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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