BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
LAKE BUTLER— Four Union County Jail inmates tried to escape from the county lockup by cutting through a lock and planned to crawl through an exhaust fan opening but abandoned the attempt after the fan started making a loud noise.
According to a sheriff’s office investigation, inmates Shawn Gibson, Jeremy Powell, Herbert Kelly and Brannon Smith used a hacksaw blade to cut the lock from the rear of a cell leading to a maintenance corridor.
When the inmates reached the fan and attempted to breach the blower, the fan started making a loud noise, forcing them to abandon their plan because they knew the sound would alert jail staff.
According to a warrant affidavit, corrections staff did note a strange noise coming from the rear of the jail around 10 p.m. on June 11 and went to investigate. There they found a bolt securing a maintenance gate had been cut and observed that the metal covering the hole for the exhaust fan had been peeled back.
The facility was locked down, and sheriff’s office personnel searched cell blocks A and B, verifying that all inmates were accounted for. During the search, the jail’s sewer system backed up.
Sgt. Charles Townsend, who was not at the jail at the time of the attempted escape, wrote in a warrant affidavit that sheriff’s office staff determined that the sewer backup was caused by the defendants flushing evidence of the attempted jailbreak down toilets.
Sheriff’s Office Capt. Lyn Williams said that even though the inmates made progress, the remaining barriers they faced made an escape unlikely.
“As far as they got,” Williams said, “they were not going to get out. They were still looking at getting through an opening I don’t think most of them could have fit through.”
Williams added that if any of the inmates could fit through the concrete opening, they would then have to survive a 25-foot, head-first drop from the fan’s opening to the ground.
Williams added that after the escape attempt, jail staff fixed the air duct leading to the exhaust fan and hardened the areas the inmates used.
Townsend’s investigation also revealed that a former inmate tried to alert jail staff about a possible escape attempt.
The former inmate told Townsend that shortly before he bonded out, Powell showed him some of the tools that would be used in the escape. After the man’s release, Powell sent him text messages asking him to provide a hideout if the breakout was successful.
Williams said jail staff did not deem the tip from the former inmate as credible.
