The five inmates who escaped the St. Francois County Detention Center earlier this year face more charges this month related to the theft of a vehicle reported during the escape. Police allege the car contained items worth nearly $2,000, which the inmates reportedly used to aid in their escape.
Dakota Pace, 26, Lujuan Tucker, 37, Kelly McSean, 52, Aaron Sebastian, 30, and Michael Wilkins, 40, were each charged last week in St. Francois County with one count of felony stealing ($750 or more) and one count of stealing a motor vehicle.
According to probable cause statements filed in the cases, on Jan. 17, Pace, Sebastian, Tucker, Wilkins, and McSean escaped from the St. Francois County Detention Center, where about 200 inmates are housed.
Court documents allege at about 7 p.m., the inmates “utilized Cell D-1,” where a sink was pulled from a wall. The inmates reportedly crawled through a void behind the sink, entered a closet on the roof, and forced entry through the closet door to the outside.
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Within 15 minutes of the escape, the group reportedly walked to Centene Corporation on Air Park Drive in the Farmington Industrial Park nearby. Once at Centene, two of the inmates entered the company’s secured parking lot by crawling through a small gap below the automatic entrance gate. They then rummaged through a vehicle before stealing a gray 2009 Toyota Scion TC with Missouri temporary tags. All five inmates climbed inside the car and were seen on security footage fleeing in a southerly direction.
Just after the inmates fled from the Centene parking lot, an officer with the Farmington Police was reportedly dispatched to the location about a stolen vehicle. The officer arrived and met with a security worker, who reported the Toyota Scion TC stolen from the parking lot.
The probable cause statements indicate investigators reviewed the surveillance footage, which reportedly showed Dakota Pace and Michael Wilkins crawl under the security gate of the parking lot.
Pace reportedly gained entry into the Toyota, started the vehicle, and exited through the gate with Wilkins in the passenger seat. As they left the gate, Tucker, Sebastian, and McSean climbed inside the car, according to police.
The report alleges that all five escapees acted together in stealing the motor vehicle in an effort to flee from custody.
The Farmington officer later spoke with the owner of the Toyota, who reportedly said she had several possessions inside. The owner listed the valuables that were in the vehicle at the time it was taken, which allegedly included an HP laptop worth $400, two Samsung tablets worth $200, a Gucci purse worth $800, and a pearl necklace worth $300.
The report alleges that additional investigation revealed the items were used by the escapees to further aid in their escape from custody.
According to a previous press release, the five inmates were discovered missing from the jail at the 10 p.m. count on Jan. 17.
After an extensive search over several days, all five escaped inmates were back in custody by Jan. 20 following a run-in with authorities in Ohio.
At about midnight on Jan. 21, St. Francois County officials announced they received notification late Friday from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, confirming the arrests of McSean and Sebastian. The two fugitives were reportedly taken into custody in or near Butler County, Ohio, in the late evening of Jan. 20.
On the morning of Jan. 21, St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock said they learned that the last two escapees, Pace and Tucker, were arrested overnight in Butler County, Ohio, north of Cincinnati.
Police said all four fugitives were traveling together in the stolen 2009 Toyota Scion they used during their escape from the St. Francois County Jail.
At about 9:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20, an Ohio State Highway Patrol officer reportedly attempted to make a traffic stop on the car. The escapees fled the stop on foot but were later tracked and captured in nearby areas.
Authorities said Sebastian and McSean were apprehended soon after the attempted traffic stop. Pace and Tucker were reportedly arrested later in the night.
On Jan. 20, sources announced that Wilkins had been apprehended in Poplar Bluff earlier that morning.
In a press release the afternoon of Jan. 20, the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Wilkins had been located in Poplar Bluff and taken into custody that morning by officers with the Poplar Bluff Police Department.
“Investigators began to focus on the Poplar Bluff area Thursday morning (Jan. 19) following a tip that indicated a person matching Wilkins’ description was seen at a bar in Poplar Bluff on Wednesday evening (Jan 18),” the sheriff’s department said in the news release following the capture.
Officials said information led police to believe that Wilkins entered the bar alone on the evening of Jan. 18 and mostly kept to himself, only drinking water.
“Witnesses felt Wilkins was behaving rather strangely, which drew their attention,” the department explained at the time. “After seeing news reports Thursday morning (Jan. 19), witnesses reported the sighting.”
Investigators reportedly obtained surveillance video from the bar, and Wilkins was positively identified, according to police. The man was taken into custody by Poplar Bluff Police at a second-hand retail store without incident and transported back to St. Francois County by officers from St. Francois County and the U.S. Marshals Service.
All five were charged with the Class E felony of escape from confinement. The charge carries a sentence of up to four years in prison.
At the time of their escape, Tucker, McSean, and Sebastian were being housed in the county jail after allegedly committing offenses at the Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services (SORTS) facility in Farmington, where they had been in custody as sexual predators. The U.S. Marshals Office later issued a $5,000 reward for each of them before they were captured.
Authorities said Tucker was in custody for a third-degree assault charge. He was previously charged with raping a 12-year-old girl in St. Louis County, according to court documents.
Documents further state McSean, also known as Larry Bemboom, was being held at the jail on charges of committing violence against Department of Mental Health employees and endangering an employee through contact with bodily fluid. McSean was in SORTS for the sexual assault of a 39-year-old woman in Boone County. Information from the sheriff’s department indicated McSean identifies as a woman, but the U.S. Marshals Office identified McSean as a male.
Sebastian was in custody for an assault charge. He was in SORTS for two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy involving females under the age of 10.
Pace, whose last known address is Park Hills, has a lengthy list of pending felony charges in St. Francois County, including trafficking of stolen identities, property damage, resisting arrest, stealing, and tampering with a motor vehicle.
Wilkins was in jail for a charge of burglary. The U.S. Marshal’s Office had issued $2,500 rewards for Pace and Wilkins following the escape.
All five are reportedly still in custody at the St. Francois County Detention Center.
Bobby Radford is a reporter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at bradford@dailyjournalonline.com