Grandma gets probation after child-aided escape

By The Associated Press

BENTONVILLE — A woman whose 8-year-old grandson helped her escape from a Benton County sheriff's office cruiser has been sentenced to probation on a variety of charges, though she's locked up for another offense.

Elizabeth Ann Jackson, 41, of Decatur was arrested last July after a disturbance in which she purportedly hit the boy's great-grandmother, Judith Jackson, 59. When the child tried to separate the adults, documents show that Elizabeth Jackson shoved him and kicked him in the ear.

A deputy arrested Elizabeth Jackson, and Judith Jackson was taken to a hospital. Elizabeth Jackson was in the back of Deputy Ken Paul's vehicle while the deputy stayed at the home with the 8-year-old and a 2-year-old, waiting for Human Services Department personnel to pick up the children.

Officials say that while Paul was tending to the 2-year-old, the 8-year-old went outside and opened the car door to spring his grandmother, who was handcuffed behind her back.

The boy wasn't charged.

The grandmother and the child were caught after the grandmother fell 75 feet down a ravine while fleeing and needed to be rescued, authorities said.

Both the women are in the Benton County Jail, serving six-month sentences for beating a woman in a separate incident last April.

The women were convicted of attacking Stacy Hubbard at the Jackson residence in Decatur. She had given Elizabeth Jackson's daughter - Dawn Roxanne Brown - a ride home and ended up as a target of the women.

Brown, 28, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in that attack.

In the matter involving her grandson, Elizabeth Jackson pleaded guilty to felony battery and misdemeanor charges of domestic battery, escape, fleeing and interfering with emergency communications