LOWELL — Arkansas State Police captured a state prisoner who authorities said jumped out of a moving inmate transport van in Jackson County two weeks ago.
William F. McCoy, 46, escaped out an open window Sept. 15 when the van transporting him and 12 other state prisoners between Newport and Brickeys slowed in heavy rain, said Ron Brown, chief deputy for the CrawfordCounty sheriff's office. Mc-Coy was returning to Brickeys from a court appearance in Crawford County.
McCoy was convicted of felony possession of a firearm and possession of controlled substances and is servinga 20-year sentence in East Arkansas Regional Unit at Brickeys.
Deputy Branson Pyle, who was driving the transport vehicle, was disciplined after an internal review revealed that none of the inmates werewearing belly chains, designed to restrict arm movement to close to the waist, Brown said.
Sheriff's office policies require the use of belly chains, handcuffs and leg irons on alltransports. The policy will be enforced in the future, and the office will try to schedule two deputies for transports with more than 10 prisoners, Brown said.
"I don't know if it would have stopped him or not, given his history," said Brown ofMcCoy.
Jackson County Sheriff David Lucas told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Sept. 15 that McCoy broke the latch on a louvered-type window on the van, and then took the window off its frame. Authorities found the window in the back of the van when the remaining inmates returned to Brickeys at 11:30 a.m.
It's the third time McCoyhas escaped from custody.
He fled the Independence County jail in Batesville twice.
In October 1997, he broke out a second-story jail window with a metal cylinder from a breathing apparatus and jumped to the ground.
Then, in April 1998, he picked the lock of his cell and climbed out a window with two other inmates using knotted bed sheets.
McCoy's latest capture came Sunday night when a state trooper pulled him over on a traffic stop near Arkansas 23 in Madison County, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said. The pickup Mc-Coy was driving appeared to have a fake license plate, and he told officers his name was Billy Smith, Sadler said.
The trooper transportedMcCoy to the Washington County jail, where a fingerprint scan was compared to a National Crime Information Center database to confirm his identity, Sadler said.
McCoy is facing felony escape charges and is being held at the Grimes Correctional Facility in Jackson County.
To contact this reporter:
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 13, 18 on 09/30/2009