Convicted murderer who escaped a Mississippi prison on Christmas Eve has been captured
By Artemis Moshtaghian, CNN
(CNN) — A convicted murderer who escaped from a Mississippi state prison on Christmas Eve was captured Wednesday, according to a Mississippi Department of Corrections post on Facebook.
Drew Johnson was captured in an area near the prison, the post said.
Sentenced to life in prison on Valentine’s Day in 2022, Johnson managed to escape from Mississippi’s newest state prison in Greene County nearly three years later on Christmas Eve, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Authorities in Mississippi had described Johnson as “desperate” and “very very dangerous.”
“Call your family and alert them. Send messages to them and get responses,” the George County Sheriff’s Department warned about the prison escape in a Facebook post. “People tend to be more generous during Christmas and let their guard down. Be vigilant and be careful.”
The 33-year-old has a violent criminal history spanning multiple states. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to a series of unrelated violent crimes, according to a news release from Tennessee’s Shelby County District Attorney’s Office. In 2016, Johnson fatally stabbed an acquaintance more than two dozen times, later abandoning the victim’s body in a field in southwest Memphis.
His violent behavior persisted behind bars. While incarcerated in Tennessee in 2021, Johnson attacked another prisoner, repeatedly striking him in the head with a brick, according to the district attorney’s office. Johnson also pleaded guilty to setting multiple fires while in jail in 2019.
Johnson received a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder, along with 15-year sentences for each of his other crimes, all of which are to be served concurrently, according to Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.
He also has a pending murder case in Rankin County, Mississippi.
The convicted murderer broke out of South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville on Tuesday around 3:30 p.m., according to an alert from the Greene County Emergency Management office, shared by police in neighboring George County.
The-CNN-Wire
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