Arkansas police find Southeast Missouri jail escapee

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- Arkansas police have captured a man who escaped from a southeast Missouri jail.

The New Madrid County Sheriff's Department said 28-year-old Jermaine Spears had been free since March 19 when he made a rope out of an extension cord and used it to climb through a window at the jail.

He was being held there on suspicion of first-degree assault and second-degree burglary.

Head dispatcher Marta Mitchem said Spears' week of freedom came to an end Friday when police in Blytheville, Ark., arrested him. A resident there had recognized him.

Earlier in the week, Columbia police had searched a southwest Columbia residence after receiving information that he was there. Before his incarceration, Spears had lived in Columbia.