Inmate who escaped prison months before his release gets additional 40-year sentence
A Mississippi man has been jailed for 40 years for breaking out of a correctional facility just a few months to his release for a 7-year prison sentence.
21-year-old Shunekndrick Huffman, fled Central Mississippi Correctional Facility on 25 August, 2022, broke into a nearby home and held two people at gunpoint, according to authorities.
He had nearly finished a seven-year sentence for aggravated assault and was expected to be released in December. Huffman was said to have stolen a car from one of the hostages and fled on foot after crashing it. He was later found hiding in a trash can at Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield two miles from the prison.
The convict pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping on Monday and according to Rankin County district attorney Bubba Bramlett, a judge gave Huffman 40 years in state prison. The ill-advised prison break means he could be in his 60s before he can walk free.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told local TV that the facility would improve its siren system to prevent future escapes. He also apologised at the time of the incident after a siren to alert locals to an escaped convict failed to go off.
Meanwhile in related news….
A man’s brazen act of escaping to freedom from an Arkansas courtroom after he was found guilty, left authorities perplexed.
Joey Watts who was facing charges of aggravated assault and felony possession of a firearm, managed to simply get up and walk out of the Grant County Courthouse in Sheridan when no one was looking.
The defendant was found guilty of aggravated assault and was awaiting final verdict from the jury who were making their deliberations on the firearms charges.
In a video which surfaced online, no court official or bailiff seems to have been watching as he just sauntered out of the courthouse.
Police eventually caught him a day later and sent him back to jail. Three others were also arrested for helping him escape.
Deputy Prosecutor Norman Frisby, who was in charge of trying the case, said Watts’ attorney had told him not to leave, but he just stood up and left anyway.
Frisby also explained that Watts had been accused of threatening a woman with a shotgun in his home on 29th November, 2018.
The incident captured on tape took place a year later in October 2019. In the footage, Watts can be seen sitting, before standing up and heading out of the court. He went straight for the stairs, down the hallway and out of the building through the door.
