The Un-Great Escape: How Two Convicted Killers Were Apprehended After An Arkansas Prison Break

Deana Davidson, charged with "furnishing an implement for escape"

Two convicted killers were apprehended in Bath, NY this weekend. They escaped May 29 from the Cummins Unit prison, about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock. They were serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. A blogger in Southwest Missouri followed the case and reported last week that three individuals have been charged with assisting the escape:

Authorities say that Little Rock residents Deana Davison and Ryan McKinney and Michael Stephenson of Jacksonville left a 2003 Hyundai Sonata for Jeffery Grinder and Calvin Adams in the parking lot of the Cummins Unit in Grady Thursday…. The three were arrested and charged on Saturday with furnishing an implement for escape, a felony, according to Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler.

Five prison guards have been placed on unpaid leave following the incident. The escapees, Jeffrey Grinder, 32, and Calvin Adams, 39, were picked up after an Amity, NY-based trooper pulled them over for not signaling a turn. A 25-mile car chase followed. From the Hornell Evening Tribune:

The maroon Hyundai Sonata with Missouri plates … crashed into a street pole at the corner of Maple Street and Cameron Avenue, where [the escapees] left the vehicle with the key still in the ignition. The men immediately fled the car and police scanners reported they ran toward Chaddock Avenue [where they were apprehended].

This is how the escape happened:

Just after early evening count at 6 p.m. Friday evening Jeffery Grinder and Calvin Adams walked into the library in prison-issued inmate clothing. A prison spokesperson says that Grinder and Adams were caught by surveillance cameras changing into the guard uniforms in the library. About twenty minutes later cameras caught the duo exiting the prison at shift change. The convicted capital murderers had at least a three hour jump on authorities who didn’t discover the duo missing until head count at 10 p.m.

Grinder was convicted in 2004 of murdering 77-year-old Pat Gardener with a dry wall hammer. In 1994, Adams kidnapped 25 year-old Richard “Richie” Austin and his pregnant wife, Cassandra, intending to force Richie — a vice-president at Leachville State Bank — to open the bank’s vault. He then shot Richie three times in the head when Richie explained that the bank’s vault was time-released. Adams attempted to kill Cassandra –  he shot her in the head and arm — but she “managed to get up and stumble to a farmhouse that was over a mile away for help.”

In less strenuous news, have a look at this video and think: “How would I have handled this escape attempt differently?”

More incarceration-related reading:

* “A prison escape or prison break is where a prisoner leaves their prison through unofficial or illegal ways”

* Alabama prison escapees caught in North Dakota

* Michigan shuts 8 prisons to save $120M

* Life in prison sobering time to mull past

* Florida getting option to ship prison inmates to other states

* What the new Jim Comey torture emails actually reveal

* Innocence claim: Troy Anthony Davis (see: “Since his conviction in 1991, seven out of nine witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony.”)

* Virginia Man Sentenced to 525 Years in Prison for Child Molesting

* Death row inmate challenges Ky.’s DNA testing law

* And from the archives: Forum discussion about death row inmate who ate his own eye