Jail escape route will get a welder's torch

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A welder has been hired to block the escape route three Butler County jail inmates used Monday night.

Butler County Commissioners Ed Strenfel, Jeff Darnell and Butch Anderson requested an opportunity to view problems at the jail Wednesday morning.

After Sheriff Mark Dobbs and chief deputy Brian Evans showed the commissioners the problems, the five men agreed on needed repairs.

The county budget contains annual funding for repairs.

Strenfel contacted Eric Pratt Welding of Doniphan, Mo., to install a quarter-inch steel plate over the escape hole in a small shower area under a staircase in one of the second floor cell blocks.

Brackets will be used to hold up the steel plate and the nuts will be welded so they cannot be removed by inmates.

"The welder looked at the area Wednesday afternoon and is expected to start work today," Dobbs said Thursday.

Dobbs and commissioners also agreed on having an engineer from Smith and Company of Poplar Bluff inspect the entire jail and determine ways to prevent escapes.

During the tour, Dobbs pointed out the small showers for the second floor cell blocks have concrete ceilings except the one where the escape occurred. Part of the shower ceiling is Sheetrock.

The escapees removed a sheet metal cover over a small hole in the Sheetrock portion of the ceiling.

"They were able to access a small space between the ductwork and the main ceiling," Dobbs said.

He said the sheet metal cover had been in place since the days when Bill Heaton was sheriff. Heaton's term ended in 2004.

"The escapees told me two of them held up a third inmate so he could make the hole bigger and then bend the cover back into place," Dobbs said.

The video system at the jail was working, but a camera is not allowed in the shower areas.

Usually, inmates are moved from the group area outside their cells at 10 p.m., but booking new inmates sometimes causes delays. The escape occurred at about 11:35 p.m.

Dobbs removed a ceiling tile in the lobby to show the commissioners the small hole between the cell block and lobby where the thin escapees squeezed through before dropping to the lobby floor and running out the door.

"Two city officers had just walked a prisoner through the lobby into the booking room. Fifteen seconds later, the escapees started coming down," Dobbs said.

City officers discovered the escape as they were leaving the lobby.

Dobbs also showed commissioners the third-floor cell block area where there is a Sheetrock ceiling under expanded metal and the concrete block walls do not go beyond the ceiling.

A decision will be made to extend the walls or install razor sharp concertina wire in the crawl space area to prevent escapes.

An escape from the third floor cell block occurred several years ago.

"The jail will remain on lockdown until we get it fixed," Dobbs said.

The three escapees are lodged is separate isolation cells.

The men -- Matthew Brandon Cook, Kade Reaves Stringfellow and Rodney Joe Green -- were caught the day after the escape at a salvage yard.

Cook, 29, is one of two men charged with first-degree murder, robbery and other crimes in the Feb. 19 killing of Sean Crow of Bernie, Mo., in a McDonald's parking lot in Advance, Mo.

Stringfellow, 23, of Portageville, Mo., is charged with second-degree murder in the July death of his infant son.

Green, 40, of Poplar Bluff, is facing multiple charges for allegedly breaking into a rural Butler County home in February, holding a husband and wife at gunpoint, then shooting them after a struggle before getting away with their pickup truck. Both survived.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pertinent address:

Poplar Bluff, MO