Man who escaped Arkansas jail sentenced

He gets 15 years for 2015 bank robbery plus 2 more years for fleeing lockup

Shaun Higham
Shaun Higham

A Booneville man who escaped last month from the Logan County jail with another man has been sentenced to prison for second-degree escape and aggravated robbery.

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Shaun Higham, 45, pleaded guilty Friday to the charges and was sentenced to 15 years for the aggravated robbery and two years for the escape charge, with the sentences to run consecutively, according to Logan County Circuit Court records. He was given 406 days of credit for his pretrial confinement and was ordered to pay court costs and fees totaling $460.

Higham and Zackary Coffer, 19, escaped in the early morning hours June 28. Sheriff's office reports said Higham reached out of a food tray opening in the cell door and picked the lock to their cell. They released the lock on the door to the lobby and ran out the front door.

Coffer was captured that night about a half-mile from the jail.

Higham eluded capture for a week, despite an intensive search that involved multiple agencies with dogs and helicopters. He surrendered to sheriff's deputies who found him tired, hungry, dirty and bug-bitten, and drinking a beer in a bar about 3 miles west of Paris.

Higham had been scheduled to go on trial Friday in Circuit Court on the aggravated robbery charge. Higham and Brandon James were accused of robbing the Subiaco Federal Credit Union on June 12, 2015.

A mental evaluation report on Higham with details of the robbery and Higham's arrest said a man dressed in black and carrying an AK-47-type gun entered the bank and demanded money from a teller. The teller was on the phone and was distracted. The robber had to ask again more forcefully to get her attention.

He ordered the teller to put cash in a black bag the robber was carrying. As the robber was leaving, the teller asked him if he wanted the change as well but he didn't reply and left the bank.

The older gray Ford Mustang in which the robbers reportedly drove was spotted parked outside Friendly Tavern in nearby Scranton later that day. Deputies found James and Higham inside. Higham ran across the highway and behind a building before a deputy shocked him with a Taser and arrested him.

Deputies found more than $1,600 from the bank stuffed into a trash can in the tavern's restroom.

Coffer was sentenced July 1 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted aggravated robbery. He is awaiting trial on the second-degree escape charge and a charge filed July 20 of impairing the operation of a vital public facility for destroying a camera in a jail cell May 28, according to court records.

State Desk on 07/26/2016

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