Prisoner who fled facing new charges

Judge sets trial date for convicted killer

PINE BLUFF -- The convicted murderer who escaped from the Arkansas Department of Correction's Pine Bluff Unit in June but was recaptured last month made a first appearance Wednesday in Jefferson County Circuit Court on three new felony charges.

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Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis set a Feb. 7 trial date for Timothy Buffington, 48, who is charged with kidnapping, first-degree escape, theft of property and aggravated assault related to his reported June 21 escape.

Prison officials transported Buffington from the Varner Supermax unit to the courtroom Wednesday morning for his court appearance and took him immediately back there.

During the hearing, Buffington spoke briefly, saying "I didn't want this to draw out. There's no use drawing it out. I'd like to move this on as quick as possible." He later said he has "been accused of certain things I didn't do," according to a court reporter.

Buffington surrendered to an Arkansas State Police trooper Sept. 18 after being spotted by several residents in Booneville, his hometown in Logan County. A jury there convicted him in 1998 of murdering his ex-wife with a high-powered rifle, and he was serving a 20-year sentence at the time of his reported escape.

Buffington, who had gained trusty status within the prison system, was working on a maintenance assignment at a house on prison grounds June 21, when officials said he stole a shotgun from the property and fled. He tried to force a prison employee who lived at the house to drive him away, but she escaped and called 911, officials said.

Prison officials said Buffington had a clean record at the lockup and was on track to be released in 2018. As a trusty, Buffington was allowed to work outside the prison doing such jobs as gardening and cleaning, prison officials said.

For weeks after Buffington's reported escape, multiple state and local agencies, along with Correction Department officers, scoured an area near Pine Bluff for him. Eventually, the search in Jefferson County eased when tips and reports of sightings rolled in from around the state, though none panned out until mid-September.

Prison officials haven't yet released details about how Buffington was able to elude capture for so long or if he had help, according to reports. In video posted on Facebook by several television stations the day he surrendered, a noticeably gaunt but cleanshaven Buffington can be heard saying that he survived in the woods by eating squirrels.

State Desk on 10/02/2014

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