[Update, 8 p.m.]
The second of two fugitives who escaped from the Jefferson County jail early this week was captured near Pelsor, a U.S. Marshals spokesman said late Thursday.
Arkansas State Police and U.S. Marshals were setting up a perimeter in the Ozark National Forest where they believed escapee Christopher Sanderson, 34, to be hiding when the fugitive called out from the woods, began yelling at officers, and surrendered, U.S. Marshals spokesman Kevin Sanders said.
Sanderson was extremely dehydrated and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment, Sanders said.
Sanderson’s arrest happened fewer than 12 hours after his cohort, Wesley Gullett, 30, was arrested in nearby Dover.
[1 p.m.]
Authorities said one of two men who escaped the Jefferson County jail is in custody in Dover.
Late Thursday morning, Wesley Gullett, 30, of Plainview was apprehended by Chief David Dalrymple with the Dover Marshal’s Office near the Ozark National Forest. The Dover Marshal's Office is not part of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Gullett and Christopher Sanderson, 34, of Jacksonville, escaped from a pod in the jail that is used to hold inmates for the federal government, Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. said.
“We are grateful to all our law enforcement partners who have devoted many personnel and countless hours to the search for Gullett and Sanderson,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Kevin Sanders said in a news release. “Thanks to the vigilance and quick actions of Chief Dalrymple, one dangerous fugitive is back in custody.”
Sanderson had not been captured Thursday.
The escapees were considered armed and “extremely dangerous,” Sanders previously said.
Gullett, the president of the New Aryan Empire, is a defendant in a racketeering case that accuses members of the Russellville-based white supremacist group of committing violent crimes as part of a large methamphetamine trafficking ring, the Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
Sanderson was charged last year with one count each of simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms and possession with purpose to sell methamphetamine or cocaine, according to court records.