Post by CC on Jun 5, 2009 23:37:58 GMT -5
Inmates Escape Wearing Staff Uniforms
By nwanews.com
Published: 05/29/2009
Two convicts put on uniforms, flee prison
BY L. LAMOR WILLIAMS AND EVIN DEMIREL - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Two convicted murderers wearing blue, prison-officers' uniforms, escaped from the Cummins Unit in Grady on Friday evening.
Authorities in Arkansas and surrounding states were looking Saturday for the duo, who drove away in a maroon or burgundy four-door sedan, said Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Dina Tyler.
The car had been left for them Thursday evening outside the electric fence encircling the unit, she said.
Surveillance cameras show that Jeffrey Grinder, 32, and Calvin Adams, 39, were counted at 6 p.m., wearing white prisoner uniforms in the prison library. They donned their disguises out of camera range, and surveillance cameras captured them walking out of the unit at 6:18 p.m., Tyler said.
She said inmates at Cummins make uniforms for officers as well as prisons and county jails. She said the prisoners are closely monitored and that no procedural changes are in the works.
"We don't know for sure that's where the uniforms came from, but it's highly suspicious," Tyler said. "That's one of two pressing questions: Where did the uniforms come from and how did they get them; and how were they able to walk out unchallenged by other staff? There's no way they had proper ID."
Grinder, sentenced in 2004 for capital murder, is white, 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He is from Washington County and has had five nonviolent prison-rule violations since 2003, Tyler said.
He was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for killing a 77-year-old widower. Grinder, then 26, broke into the man's home while he slept on the couch without his hearing aids and hit him in the head.
Adams, sentenced in 1995 for capital murder, is white, 5-foot-7, 154 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. He is from Greene County and has had 12 prison-rule violations since 1995. His one violent rule violation probably stemmed from a fight, Tyler said.
At, 24, Adams kidnapped a Leachville banker and the man's pregnant wife, drove them to a remote levee and shot them. The husband died, but his wife survived and walked more than a mile to find help.
Both escapees were sent to the Cummins Unit from the Tucker Maximum Security Unit, with Adams arriving Feb. 11, 2008, and Grinder arriving in January.
Prison officials determined that both prisoners, who were serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, were missing after the 10 p.m. count of the unit's 1,600 prisoners.
By nwanews.com
Published: 05/29/2009
Two convicts put on uniforms, flee prison
BY L. LAMOR WILLIAMS AND EVIN DEMIREL - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Two convicted murderers wearing blue, prison-officers' uniforms, escaped from the Cummins Unit in Grady on Friday evening.
Authorities in Arkansas and surrounding states were looking Saturday for the duo, who drove away in a maroon or burgundy four-door sedan, said Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Dina Tyler.
The car had been left for them Thursday evening outside the electric fence encircling the unit, she said.
Surveillance cameras show that Jeffrey Grinder, 32, and Calvin Adams, 39, were counted at 6 p.m., wearing white prisoner uniforms in the prison library. They donned their disguises out of camera range, and surveillance cameras captured them walking out of the unit at 6:18 p.m., Tyler said.
She said inmates at Cummins make uniforms for officers as well as prisons and county jails. She said the prisoners are closely monitored and that no procedural changes are in the works.
"We don't know for sure that's where the uniforms came from, but it's highly suspicious," Tyler said. "That's one of two pressing questions: Where did the uniforms come from and how did they get them; and how were they able to walk out unchallenged by other staff? There's no way they had proper ID."
Grinder, sentenced in 2004 for capital murder, is white, 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He is from Washington County and has had five nonviolent prison-rule violations since 2003, Tyler said.
He was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for killing a 77-year-old widower. Grinder, then 26, broke into the man's home while he slept on the couch without his hearing aids and hit him in the head.
Adams, sentenced in 1995 for capital murder, is white, 5-foot-7, 154 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. He is from Greene County and has had 12 prison-rule violations since 1995. His one violent rule violation probably stemmed from a fight, Tyler said.
At, 24, Adams kidnapped a Leachville banker and the man's pregnant wife, drove them to a remote levee and shot them. The husband died, but his wife survived and walked more than a mile to find help.
Both escapees were sent to the Cummins Unit from the Tucker Maximum Security Unit, with Adams arriving Feb. 11, 2008, and Grinder arriving in January.
Prison officials determined that both prisoners, who were serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, were missing after the 10 p.m. count of the unit's 1,600 prisoners.