County jail escapee captured

By Staff
September 25, 2004
By Suzanne Monk / managing editor
East Mississippi Drug Task Force agents captured a Lauderdale County jail inmate Friday night who escaped from custody earlier in the day.
John Sims, 26, was found at about 7:40 p.m. Friday in the vicinity of 33rd Street and 38th Avenue in Meridian.
Sims was transported to a local hospital where he was being treated for an undisclosed medical ailment. Sims had been treated by jail medical staff for the same problem.
Sims was arrested Sept. 14 and charged with home burglary and credit card fraud. He bonded out the next day. He was re-arrested Wednesday for violating his parole in an earlier, unrelated felony conviction, and returned to the county jail.
Sheriff Billy Sollie said that Sims' escape at 12:45 p.m. Friday apparently involved the use of a walkie-talkie that was discovered missing from the jail infirmary where Sims had received treatment.
Sollie said his office is investigating how correctional officers received their instructions by radio.
Law enforcement officers spent much of the day looking for Sims. The inmate's family also was contacted and instructed to call law officers if they heard from him.
Before his arrest, Sims had been living with his grandmother on 33rd Street.