• One captured by Tabor City police Sunday night. Inmates find outside door partially locked although control-room computer showed door secure.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Three male felon inmates breached the new modern jail – occupied for just two weeks -- here Saturday and escaped. One was captured Sunday night by Tabor City police, and the others remain at large.

Jimmy Carroll Edwards, 26, of West Third Avenue, Chadbourn, and Benjamin Currie, 34, of Seal Street, Tabor City, are on the run.

Jason Earl Ward, 21, of Lewis Street, Tabor City, was captured shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday by Tabor City police.

“The escapees should be considered dangerous and members of the public shouldn’t try and capture them. Call 9-1-1 or my office at 642-6551 if somebody sees them.

Let us or another law enforcement agency go after Currie and Edwards,” the sheriff pointed out.

“The only thing I can say for sure is the control-room computer for the pod where they were housed indicated all doors were locked. But, one door leading outside to a fenced area wasn’t locked,” Sheriff Chris Batten said Sunday.

Computer glitch

“The lock on the outside door didn’t fully engage, and apparently Jason Earl Ward found it and he was out before 5 p.m. Saturday. We’re not sure when Jimmy Carroll Edwards and Benjamin Currie found the same door open. It could have been at almost the same time.

“The fenced area has a lock on the gate, but one of the prisoners kicked it open. We’ve now got chains on all the fenced areas outside each of the four pods,” the sheriff added.

“We’ve had several calls about where the three prisoners have been seen, but we’ve been unable to find Edwards and Currie. We appreciate all the help we’re getting from the public, and want them to continue to call,” Batten declared.

Tabor City Police Lt. Ronnie Carroll said police there put the word out on the street about the escape and asked for information about any of the three – particularly Ward and Currie, both who normally live inside the town’s limits.

White male ran

“I got a call just after 9 Sunday night that Ward was probably walking along Lewis Street, the same street where he usually lives,” Carroll said.

Carroll, along with Officer John Evans, went to the area in an unmarked car and turned onto Lewis from Sixth Street. “There was a white male walking with three other males.

“The white guy ran as soon as he saw the car. He ran into the woods on the east side of the street. John Evans jumped out and ran after him, and I drove around the block and went into the woods from the other side.

“I hollered for Evans and heard him holler back that he had him. Teamwork made it happen,” Carroll declared.

Ward was picked up in Tabor City by sheriff’s deputies and returned to the new jail.

Escape discovered

Batten said the three felons were discovered missing after a head count at 8 p.m. Saturday, shortly after the detention center’s staff went through a shift change.

The door used to reach the outside “never showed it was unlocked all day. There’s a problem somewhere in the computer system, and we have to wait until Tuesday for a technician to come and find out where the problem is,” Batten noted.

The sheriff said he hopes he can make a change in the number of computers needed to control outside doors. “Now, we use three computers, but if the fire code will let us shift the controls to one computer, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

Batten and several deputies were out almost all night Saturday, and continued their searches Sunday and most of Sunday night.

Officers praised

Batten praised Tabor City police for their quick help in capturing Ward. “The work by Tabor City’s officers Sunday night is the type of cooperation we’ve been getting for years from other county agencies, and an example of good police work,” the sheriff said.

Edwards had been confined since Wednesday, Oct. 24, when he was arrested on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, and possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

Chadbourn Police Lt. Deon Hayes charged Edwards with the offenses. The firearm was found during surveillance by Intensive Probation Officer Eric Lammonds.

Edwards was placed on probation in May 2006 after being convicted in Brunswick County on five counts of obtaining property by fraud.

Currie had been jailed since Monday, Oct. 22, when he had been arrested as a fugitive from a burglary charge in Horry County, S.C. Currie was also charged with at least three Columbus County felonies involving property crimes after he was jailed last week.

Ward was serving a 90-day jail term after he pleaded in District Court here on Oct. 11 to a misdemeanor breaking and entering charge, records show.