Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Escapee returned to County Jail

The hunt for Nevada County jail escapee Lamar Holmes ended near mid-afternoon Monday, as two Hempstead County Sheriffs Department deputies literally chased down the man who had eluded lawmen in three counties for more than a week.

Holmes was captured beneath the Union-Pacific Railroad bridge at Fulton shortly after 2 p.m. Monday by Hempstead County deputies Jerry Crowder and Alan Young.

He had bolted from the two deputies after being discovered in an abandoned mobile home in Fulton.

They got a call of a suspicious person walking down the railroad tracks at Fulton, Hempstead County Chief Deputy James Singleton said Monday. As they were investigating, somebody told them that someone was staying in one of the abandoned houses down there, and they went and checked one, but didnt find anything.

Singleton said the two deputies persisted in the search based upon the information they had received, and they found a man fitting Holmes description in an abandoned mobile home in the vicinity of Conway and

Townsend streets in Fulton.

We searched that house room by room, and he was in the last one, Crowder said.

The man later identified as Holmes bolted through a window, and a foot chase ensued, Young said.

When I went in to check that house, he went out the window, he said.

Both deputies took up the pursuit on foot through a residential area of Fulton, into the business district, and toward the railroad tracks in the vicinity of Arkansas Highway 355.

Young reached him first.

When I got close to him, he just put his hands up and I told him to get on the ground, he said.

Crowder said Holmes almost immediately identified himself.

This subject weve got has no identification, but hes claiming to be Lamar Holmes, escaped from the Nevada County Jail, Crowder radioed Hope central dispatch once the arrest had been made.

Holmes was immediately transported to the Hempstead

County Detention Center, where he was to be held, pending transfer to Nevada County. He spat at a Hope

Star photographer as he was lead from a county patrol car and into the jail.

An escape charge has already been filed against Holmes in Nevada County.

Nevada County Sheriff Bobby Carlton said Holmes was arraigned earlier in the day on Feb. 12 for his alleged role in the October robbery of the Red-E-Mart on Highway 24. The reports of that incident indicate that the robber was armed with a handgun.

Holmes has been in jail since December on several felony charges. Those include fleeing on foot, fleeing in a vehicle, illegal possession of a firearm, theft of property and theft by receiving. Those charges were filed on Jan. 22. Bond was set at $50,000 and Holmes remained in jail. On Feb. 9, court records indicate that Holmes filed a request for a reduction of the bond amount to $5,000 but no action had yet been taken on that bond.

Carlton said Karen Jones was on duty at the time of the escape. He said Jones had been summoned to the cell by another inmate who was asking for a small crate commonly used by inmates as a table on which to play cards.

When Jones opened the door, Holmes - who was standing to the left of the door - pushed his way out of the cell, according to Carlton.

He said, I dont want to hurt you, but I will kill you, Carlton said.

Holmes took the keys from the jailer then asked if there were any other officers in the building, according Carlton. Carlton said a city police officer was in a back room, but the jailer was apparently unaware of that at the time. He said Jones indicated that she could feel Holmes hand on her back as they went downstairs.

Holmes used the jailers key to open the main jail door, then fled out a side door. Carlton said Jones then yelled for the dispatcher who alerted the city officer and called for county officers.

The next morning, Nevada County Chief Jailer Mae McKinnon and NCSO Officer Gary Hicks found Holmes clothing and the keys on Third Street.

I dont know where he got the clothes, Carlton said. But he apparently had something else to wear.

Carlton said the jailer followed proper procedure when opening the doors and cited the fact that Holmes had been arraigned earlier in the day for his alleged role in the Red-E-Mart robbery.

It wouldnt have mattered who it was, Carlton said. I think he just made up his mind to try it.

Carlton said the jailer had no weapons with her in the jail - a policy of the detention facility.