BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
RAIFORD— A Union Correctional Institution inmate who has escaped from Florida jails and prisons seven times was arrested for the attempted murder of a correctional officer last week.
Mark DeFriest has attempted 13 escapes from Florida correctional facilities since he was first arrested in 1979 at the age of 19.
On June 13 Union deputies arrested the inmate for the Oct. 8, 2021, offenses of attempted second-degree murder of a correctional officer, aggravated battery on a correctional officer, resisting an officer with violence using a weapon, resisting an officer without violence, possession of a weapon by a state inmate and three counts of battery of a facility employee by throwing certain fluids.
According to court papers, DeFriest attempted to stab one correctional officer in the neck with a metal tube, stabbed another with the tube and threw urine or feces at three more officers.
