Who Is Jimmy Causey? Inmate Escapes South Carolina Prison And Is Caught

An inmate who twice escaped maximum security prisons in South Carolina was apprehended by Texas authorities Friday morning, according to The Post and Courier.

Read: Inmates Who Killed Prison Guards And Escaped Still Missing: ‘We Have No Idea Where They Are’

Jimmy Causey, 46, escaped South Carolina’s Lieber Correctional Institution earlier this week. Prison officials noticed he was missing on Wednesday afternoon and began the manhunt. He was captured near Austin, Texas at a motel. During the search, the South Carolina Department of Corrections posted a wanted poster describing Causey on their Twitter account.

Causey was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 because of a 2002 kidnapping and armed robbery. He entered the home of a Columbia defense attorney, bound his wife and daughter with duct tape and held them at gunpoint while he and another man searched the house for money. The attorney, Jack Swerling, had defended him in the 1990s.

“He’s a dangerous guy and he’s at this point, probably more dangerous than ever because he’s desperate,” Swerling said. “He’s obviously a criminal and a hardened criminal.”

Causey’s criminal history began in 1989 when he was charged with burglary, grand larceny and receiving stolen goods, serving less than a year in South Carolina’s “youthful offender” program. In the early 1990s, he was charged with offenses such as shoplifting, disorderly conduct, assault and driving with a suspended license.

He attempted his first prison escape in 2005 when he and another inmate escaped Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia by hiding in a trash truck. They were caught after three days and returned to prison. They orchestrated their escape by making fake heads out of toilet paper and putting them in their beds to make it seem they were present for the morning prison roll call.

First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe was the lead prosecutor in 2004 when Causey received his life sentence. After Causey was arrested, investigators discovered he had plans to enter other and rob other homes he believed would contain money.

“He’s a bad guy,” Pascoe said. “He’s always looking to make money, and he will do that by any means possible.”

Read: Georgia Governor Thankful For Escaped Prison Inmates Capture In Tennessee After Chase

After Causey’s 2005 escape from Broad River Correctional Institute, the prison director at the time, Jon Ozmint, was interrogated about why the inmates were able to escape. He blamed budget cutbacks that made his department have to cut security positions. After Causey’s escape, he was held in a South Carolina’s most maximum security prison, but was returned to the general prison system — he later ended up at Lieber Correctional Institution.

“This guy is never going to stop trying to escape,” Ozmint said, describing Causey to the Associated Press on Thursday. “You can’t keep him there forever anymore. It’s really a Catch-22.”