A man who 10 years ago wore a guard uniform and walked out of an Arkansas prison to flee a life sentence for capital murder has escaped again from a different detention facility, authorities said Monday.
Calvin Adams, 49, of Leachville in Mississippi County escaped from the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys, about 30 miles southeast of Forrest City. He was discovered missing after officials conducted a unit-wide count, according to a statement released Monday morning by the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Department spokeswoman Dina Tyler said she couldn't immediately confirm when authorities noticed Adams was missing. She said she was notified shortly after 5 a.m.
"The last time he was seen on camera he was heading to the boiler room," Tyler said.
Tyler said authorities are unsure whether Adams had gotten past the electric fence of the East Arkansas Regional Unit.
"We are working on two fronts," she said. "One is that he is still on the grounds and hasn't made it past the electric fence, because this is a big facility. The second is he somehow made it past the electric fence and is loose on the outside."
She said for Adams to get past the electric fence, he would have had to leave by going out the front gate of the facility or going out the back where the sally port is located.
"Those are the only two options, unless he flew out of here," Tyler said. "Both of those areas have cameras, but it's kind of hard to see. We haven't had any sightings from the community or things like that."
The U.S. Marshals Service and several other agencies are assisting in the search for Adams, said Bob Clark, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals.
"We don't have a specific location where he might be at or anything like that," Clark said. "We are just trying to put some pieces together."
The East Arkansas Regional Unit has medium and maximum security facilities on the grounds. Tyler said Adams was placed in the open barracks area of the medium security facility.
"The open barracks is just like an army barracks where there are 40 to 50 people inside the unit," she said. "He was inside the medium security unit because the whole facility is behind an electric fence and his escape attempt was more than 10 years ago."
If Adams has escaped from the facility, it would be only the second time someone has gotten past the electric fence, Tyler said. The other time was in 2016.
The Arkansas Department of Correction website shows Adams had multiple disciplinary violations this year, including lying to a staff member in May, and in January he was cited with violations of escape, out of place assignment, two counts of possession or manufacture of contraband, lying to staff member and escape.
"The escape violation is not technically an escape," Tyler said. "It was more like he wasn't in the area he was supposed to be in. It was an ADC rule violation, but it wasn't technically an escape."
Adams pleaded guilty in 1995 to abducting and fatally shooting banker Richard Austin, 25, and injuring the man's pregnant wife. Adams received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
In 2009, Adams and another convicted murderer, 33-year-old Jeffrey Grinder, left through the front door of the Cummins Unit after dressing in prison guard uniforms and identification cards, according to previous article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"I believe they were caught in New York," Clark said. "If I remember right, they were trying to get to the Canada border."
Ted Murray, the chief of police in Hornell, N.Y., where the escapees were apprehended, said the two "just walked out" of the detention facility in Arkansas.
After walking out of the Cummins Unit, the two fled in a car that had been left at the prison as part of a tobacco distribution ring. The escapees reportedly knew the car was going to be there, with a key inside, according to Murray.
Adams and Grinder were caught in Hornell several days later. Identification badges, handcuffs and a set of keys were found with the pair when they were arrested.
Following their escape in 2009, five prison employees were terminated for not following procedures that would have prevented or limited the escape. Arkansas State Police also arrested three people accused of leaving the car at the prison.
In the weeks following the escape, investigators determined the inmates plotted their breakout by using contraband cellphones.
Tyler said Adams' most recent escape attempt doesn't seem as organized as the last time he walked out of a facility.
"Last time involved an officer's uniform, a waiting car and things like that," Tyler said. "We haven't seen anything like that this go around, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened."
Tyler said prisoners have managed to hide on the grounds of a detention center for days.
"We had a prisoner at the Cummins Unit hide in a barn for two or three days," Tyler said.
State Desk on 10/01/2019