Louisiana inmate recaptured after 2-day search
Nov. 15 (UPI) — An inmate in Louisiana was recaptured overnight Friday, a little more than two days after he escaped and six months after 10 men broke out from another jail in the state.
Cecil Michael Stratton, 46, of Morgan City, previously escaped from jails in 2005 and 2009.
He was been booked in the Berwick Police Department jail on Wednesday.
Stratton allegedly threw a chemical substance at a police officer’s face. At the time “jailers were securing inmates during lockdown procedures,” the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Department said in a statement Thursday.
Then a “brief struggle” ensued between Stratton and the officers.
Stratton and another inmate, Brandon Brunet, 22, got out of the jail. Brunnet was captured a short time later, police said.
At 12:15 a.m., Stratton was arrested after the Morgan City Police Department received a complaint that he was seen inside a residence in Morgan City, the county sheriff’s office posted Saturday on Facebook. He was found lying on the ground in a boat at a business in Morgan City and taken into custody.
“The teamwork between agencies and the relentless man-hours invested into locating and apprehending Cecil Stratton have paid off,” St. Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell said in a statement. “I would like to thank the men and women of all the agencies involved for the teamwork they have displayed over the past three days.”
The two escapees are facing charges of disarming a police officer, battery on a police officer, aggravated battery, aggravated escape and unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure.
In 2005, Stratton escaped from the Centerville Jail in St. Mary’s Parish in southern Louisiana, WBRZ-TV reported.
Stratton and another person led police on a chase at speeds hitting 80 mph in Ouachita Parish after police received a report that two men had robbed a Harvest Foods store. They were driving a truck that had been stolen in New Iberia.
He went to Allen Correctional Center in north Louisiana, from which he also escaped in 2009 with two other inmates, KPLC-TV reported.
He was brought to the Lafayette Parish Jail. Investigators say they escapes through a compromised fence and with the help of a correctional center guard.
Stratton’s past arrests that date to at least 1998 include theft, illegal possession of a stolen property, marijuana possession, attempted first-degree murder and resisting an officer, according to WBRZ-TV.
“Mr. Stratton is no stranger to the law enforcement. He has been in and out of prison most of his adult life. At one point in time he was actually an escaped inmate from Allen Parish Correctional Facility,” Berwick Police Chief Elect J.P. Henry said.
On May 16, 10 men escaped from the Orleans Justice Center in the morning after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. Their disappearance was unnoticed for several hours.
Three inmates were apprehended in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the jailbreak.
The nine inmate was taken into custody again in New Orleans on June 27 and final one on Oct. 8 in Atlanta.