HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — A former worker of a Mississippi jail has been arrested and charged within the June escape of Joshua Zimmerman, an inmate who fled to Chicago and was captured there final week after a 15-hour standoff with police at a restaurant simply blocks from the Democratic Nationwide Conference.
Ronnie Hunt was charged with conveying articles helpful for the escape of a prisoner, Mississippi Division of Public Security spokesperson Bailey Martin mentioned Tuesday. Martin mentioned “further prices are possible.” She didn’t reply to a query about whether or not Hunt is represented by an legal professional.
The DeSoto County Sheriff’s Division mentioned Hunt, 32, has been fired from his job as a deputy jailer, WREG-TV reported. He was being held about an hour’s drive away within the jail in Lafayette County, Mississippi.
The U.S. Marshals Service mentioned Zimmerman escaped June 14 from the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi, the place he was being held on tried homicide and armed theft prices. He was additionally awaiting extradition to Houston, the place he’s charged with homicide, the Marshals Service mentioned.
Investigators mentioned final week that they consider Zimmerman was working on the seafood restaurant the place he was captured. The restaurant is a couple of half-mile from the United Heart, the place the political conference was being held. The Marshals Service mentioned there was “no connection or risk to the occasion or these attending.”
Zimmerman was carrying road garments, not a jail jumpsuit, when he escaped in Mississippi. A screenshot from a courthouse safety video confirmed him carrying khaki pants and a white shirt and no handcuffs.
In line with court docket data in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of fatally capturing a girl, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on Sept. 2, 2023. The 2 had been requested to go away the motel after a number of complaints of preventing, and when workers members checked the room to see if they’d left, they discovered Mercer’s physique with a gunshot wound to the pinnacle, police mentioned.
Court docket data additionally present Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on a felony sexual assault cost. He pleaded not responsible and was freed on a $200,000 bond, however a warrant was later issued for his re-arrest.
The DeSoto County sheriff, Thomas E. Tuggle II, instructed WREG-TV after Zimmerman’s escape: “The notion that he had assist, that’s false. The notion that he had an additional set of garments, that’s false. This can be a profession prison. He knew what he was doing.”
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