A South Carolina prison inmate has been captured — for a second time — after an elaborate jail break.
Authorities say Jimmy Causey may have utilized wire cutters dropped from a drone as well as smuggled cellphones, guns and nearly $50,000 in his latest escape, which went unnoticed for 18 hours and lasted two days before his capture Friday.
Over that time, he was able to make it all the way to Austin, Texas, nearly 2,000 kilometers away from the Lieber Correctional Institution, about 145 kilometers southeast of Columbia. Law enforcement officers in Texas found him sleeping in a motel room early Friday.
South Carolina prison officials are now investigating the escape.
“We believe a drone was used to fly in the tools that allowed him to escape,” said South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling, who added that the use of a drone was still unconfirmed.
Causey, 46, is 13 years into a life sentence for holding a lawyer at gunpoint in the attorney’s Columbia home. In his first escape, Causey and another inmate hid in a garbage truck leaving the Broad River Correctional Institution near Columbia. They were nabbed three days later in a hotel after someone delivering a pizza called police.
While the second escape was more elaborate, officials say Causey employed some techniques from the first escape, including using a dummy to make it appear to prison guards that he was in his bed. He reportedly escaped around 8 p.m. local time on July 4, but was only discovered missing the next day at 2 p.m.
Officials are still not sure how Causey got hold of the cash, a reported four cellphones and a fake ID.
“Everyone who assisted him — we intend on bringing them to justice as well,” State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said.
After his first escape, Causey was transferred to a supermax prison, the most secure type of correctional facility, but was later relocated.
Stirling said Causey would be placed in “a high, high security unit.”
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