Searchers continued combing areas around the East Arkansas Regional Correctional Facility on Wednesday for a convicted killer who walked away while on a construction and demolition team three days ago.
Previous coverage of Jones' crimes
60 years, no parole for killer of girl, 16
Suspect led 2 to site of body, officers told
Lloyd Jones, 40, of Lavaca was last seen Monday working at a site about 2 miles west of the prison near Brickeys in Lee County. Jones pleaded guilty in August 2012 in the slaying of 16-year-old Angela Allen, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison as a habitual offender.
Jones was scheduled for release on Feb. 14, 2072.
Solomon Graves, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said officials continued to search areas around the prison and the work location Wednesday.
The FBI offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to Jones' capture, said Deb Green, a spokesman for the bureau in Little Rock.
Jones apparently walked away from the work crew at noon Monday. He was not shackled or handcuffed, but he was supervised by at least one armed guard, Graves said. Jones had an I-C inmate classification, which allowed him to leave the prison on work details provided he was accompanied by armed guards.
Jones' classification was changed to a 4-C classification, the strictest, on the Correction Department's inmate information website Wednesday because of his escape, Graves said.
The spokesman said officials did not believe Jones had help in his escape or was picked up by someone in a vehicle in the rural area near the prison.
On Wednesday evening, police blocked Arkansas 79 and Arkansas 131 near the prison, but no trace of Jones was found. Graves said the department had been receiving tips about Jones' whereabouts, but none resulted in his discovery.
Jones entered his plea to first-degree murder in Sebastian County Circuit Court on Aug. 16, 2012. He also pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and two counts of possessing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct with a child.
Jones was sentenced to 10 years in prison on May 16, 2001, for rape in Sebastian County.
In an affidavit of arrest filed in Sebastian County Circuit Court, Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue wrote that Jones and Angela Allen had been texting each other in early 2012. Jones admitted to police that he met the girl on a website and said that when they met in person and he learned she was only 16 years old, he "violently pushed her into the water" and left her.
Colleen Allen, Angela Allen's grandmother who adopted Angela, reported the girl missing on Feb. 12, 2012.
Police found the girl's body a week later on land where Jones was building a shack.
The teen was stuffed in a large, blue plastic barrel and buried, Shue wrote in the affidavit.
The cause of death was by strangulation, Shue wrote.
According to the Correction Department, Jones underwent a sexual-offender program on March 27, 2008, and an anger management course on Aug. 11, 2008.
While teams continued to search the grounds near the prison Wednesday, Colleen Allen said she felt Jones was elsewhere.
"I don't know where he's at, but I don't believe he's there," she said.
"We are taking this one day at a time," she said. "I'm not getting much sleep. Any little noise and I'm awake. It's that bad.
"There are so many questions I've got," she said, referring to why Jones was allowed on a work program despite his violent criminal history. "They are common sense questions. But I've not gotten any answers."
State Desk on 06/16/2016