Changes to the exterior of the White County Jail can be seen in this photo, and include fencing, razor wire and cameras on the cell area of the facility, this after a mid-June jailbreak that made national news.
WHITE CO. – It’s all over but the court follow-through for White County’s jailbreak.
And in the wake of the latest escape of inmates from the city/county jail in Carmi, there have been plenty of recriminations toward law enforcement and those on staff at the jail.
However, an inspection of the jail by both Illinois Department of Corrections and federal agencies for whom White County houses fed inmates has proven that no one at the jail was responsible for the jailbreak, which occurred in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 16, despite assertions by the public to the contrary.
Sheriff Doug Maier advised of the circumstances surrounding the incident, in which three inmates managed to escape the building – Zachary Shock,
Zachary Shock
24, being held for Hamilton County on Aggravated Battery with a Firearm and Murder; Johnny E. Tipton, 61, who was in on White County charges of Theft and Possession of Stolen Property; and Justin M. Bray, 28, who was being held for the feds and whose local charges included Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Resisting/Obstructing a Peace Officer, and Aggravated Fleeing or Attempting to Elude.
It’s not been noted specifically which of the three proposed the jailbreak; however, Maier said that upon later questioning of Shock, the young man was asked how long he’d been thinking about breaking out, to which Shock advised “Pretty much every day since I’ve been here.” Shock was taken into custody in late September 2016 and has been held in White since that time, pending trial, which is supposed to come up in late August…so he’d had almost two years to think about such a thing, and to evaluate how it could be done, where the weak points were, and how those could be overcome.
Maier explained how the three, using a metal curtain rod from privacy curtains the jail was forced to install under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, a 2016 federal mandate designed to prohibit sexual misconduct in correctional settings, including county jails (apparently, a “privacy curtain” slows down sexual urges with incarcerated individuals, at least, according to legislators at the national level who likely don’t know a thing about prison rape,
but many of which probably should learn).
Justin Bray
Because the pipe was metal, and not PVC, the inmates were able to use it to scrape a hole into the interior cell wall where the three were, tunnel out through the building material (concrete blocks) and then to the brick facing on the outside of the building, where they were able to punch a hole in the wall and make their escape.
This occurred in the early morning hours of the 16th; video from outside the building, viewed in the wake of the escape, showed that the three were running on foot down the alleyway that runs beside the building at 3:05 a.m.
Their disappearance, however, was not discovered until jail rounds at approximately 5:30 a.m. The alarm went out, but the inmates had an almost-three-hour lead, and it would be weeks before at least two of them were brought back in.
No banging
Maier said that while an officer stationed in the east Carmi area “thought he heard some kind of banging noise” outside the building at about the time of the jailbreak (which could have been falling brick and other building material), Maier and investigators listened to the audio of the in-house surveillance in the jail, and there was no sound ascertained regarding the chipping away with the metal pipe.
“They didn’t bang the pipe against the cell wall,” Maier told Disclosure. “They just scraped at it, and scraped away enough of it that they were able to break through the inside wall, the cinderblock, and then the brick. It didn’t make any noise; they were very quiet about it, and they did it all in one night.”
Maier didn’t estimate how long it actually took to scrape through the wall, but advised that if the inmates were in their bunks at last check, then not there at next check, that would’ve been more than enough time for them to make a man-sized hole through the inner, center and outer walls.
From that point, news came in frequently.
Johnny E. Tipton, Jr.
Bray was apprehended at 7:34 p.m. later that same night (Saturday, June 16) at a rural location east of Crossville, in the vicinity of the Calvin Bottoms. He had been spotted by a deputy walking along a country road, fled on foot, and was located hiding in an oilfield tank.
At the time of his apprehension, authorities were already working through the three inmates’ communications with the outside world, and had come across several incriminating conversations with folks, namely, Bray’s alleged girlfriend, Carly Schmittler, and a woman said to be a relative of Tipton’s, Wendi Owen, both of whom were known to White County authorities owing to recent arrests and charges.
These conversations, by phone, were along the lines of “Hey, that guy you were supposed to pick up…? Let’s do that next time.”
“It’s a situation that when we give a listen to the regular, day-to-day phone conversations, it doesn’t send up any red flags; we don’t even think ‘What on earth are they talking about?’” Maier said. “And then you go back and listen to it and you say ‘OH. That’s what they were trying to say!’”
Owen, 46, and Schmittler, 28, both of Grayville, along with one Elijah R. Locher, 32, of Crossville, were taken into custody over that weekend and
charged on Monday, June 18, with attempting to aid the escapees.
Wendi Owen
For whatever reason, Locher’s arresting charges never followed through as formal charges.
Citizens familiar with the bunch say that Locher’s father is a person in a position as a public official in White, which may have resulted in some preferential treatment, but Disclosure could never find any evidence of such a thing, and Locher, who has only a limited criminal history in White, was cleared of any involvement.
Schmittler admitted to her part in the breakout, advising that she came to Carmi at a specific, predetermined time and location, with a vehicle, and attempted to locate Bray to assist him in fleeing.
Schmittler disposed of her charge very quickly; she was already under probation in a meth possession felony, to which she’d just entered a plea June 13 in exchange for sentencing. Facing probation violation, she opted to plead to the Attempted Aiding Escape charge, and cleared the docket of that on Monday, July 9.
Schmittler may or may not have been facing video evidence said to exist of a vehicle pulling up to a residence in rural White County said to be hers, wherein Bray was brought to the house, ostensibly by Locher.
Since Locher remains uncharged, the “video evidence” is, at this point, unsubstantiated as to its existence.
Owens’ charge is still pending.
False report
In every incident of this magnitude, there’s bound to be something wonky happen, and that occurred in this instance, that occurred in the Omaha area on the White/Gallatin County line Wednesday, June 21.
Just before 1 p.m. that day, one Joshua A. Kennedy, 28, of Hernando, Mississippi, made a call to 911, stating that he’d been robbed at gunpoint by an unknown male wearing a ski mask.
Kennedy stated that this occurred at the old Midway BBQ location on Illinois Highway 141 (the dividing line between White to the north and Gallatin to the south) just north of the village of Omaha. He added the detail that the masked man drove away in a light blue Chevrolet Malibu passenger car.
With everything happening in the search for the two at-large inmates, the public – and mainstream media – jumped all over it, claiming that it was possible that the gunman could be either Shock or Tipton.
However, as it turned out, Kennedy was lying. There was no robbery at gunpoint…and to this day, there’s been no real explanation offered as to why Kennedy made the claim.
Instead, he was arrested and charged with making a false report. He’s been released on a $5,000 recog bond. Further details of his case were not
Carly Schmittler
available as of press time.
Shock caught
The next two weeks were tense, as sightings of Shock and Tipton continued to involve heavy law enforcement presence (including White deputies, as well as Hamilton and Gallatin in separate incidents, along with Illinois State Police and the U.S. Marshals Service), but the two continued to elude.
At one point, it was alleged that the two had broken into a home or storage shed in a rural Hamilton property and had stolen guns, meaning that they were not just fugitives, but armed fugitives.
That turned out to have been a mistaken allegation.
However, when Zac Shock was found on the evening of Friday, July 6, he was indeed armed with a loaded handgun.
Shock was observed by a local citizen walking on Shawnee Forest Road outside of the village of Equality in Gallatin County that evening. The citizen, as most in downstate Illinois were by now on high alert, called in the sighting, which had a personal note: There was direct interaction between the caller and Shock, as Shock had approached the caller, advising he “needed a ride.”
Officers from ISP, Gallatin and Hardin counties and Ridgway police responded.
Shock, said Maier in a report following the apprehension, did not attempt to run or resist, instead saying he was “giving up at this point.” He did not attempt to pull out the weapon, instead advising that it had been stolen from an uninhabited cabin he’d broken into, and he was using it “for protection” as he had been “living in the forest for the last week.” Also in the cabin, Shock had located food and water, resulting in the good condition he was found in upon apprehension.
And before the congratulatory expressions had even slowed down from the apprehension of Shock, the arrest of Tipton was announced.
Old-school JT
It’s unclear whether Shock tipped off authorities to Tipton’s presence, but his discovery – and apprehension – was made by none other than Hardin County’s own “old school” Sheriff, JT Fricker.
Eli Locher
Fricker said the whole thing went down in about 15 minutes on the evening of Saturday, July 7, between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m.
At 8:15, the call came in that Tipton was holed up in a camper on a property outside of Cave-in-Rock.
Fricker sent up the alert, notified Cave Marshal Garrison Mott, and, with other members of his department, met Mott at the camper. With State’s Attorney Daniel Cockrum working on getting a warrant for the camper, and dispatch on standby for getting the warrant to Fricker, the sheriff had other law enforcement officers come up the back roads to the location (34 Ford’s Ferry Road), and while there, observed the door to the camper open slightly, with a hand showing on the outside.
This, Fricker said, gave indication that at least someone was in the camper as reported, and Gott gave a command for whomever it was to “come out”…but the hand withdrew, and the door closed.
At that point, Fricker was notified that the warrant had been signed by a judge and was in effect.
So Fricker, being the old-school sheriff he is, opted not to go the shoot-em-up route that so many police departments look for an excuse to do these days, and instead shouted out to the person in the trailer, “Hey Johnny, it’s JT. You come on out now.”
And that’s just what Tipton did. Tipton was familiar with Fricker, the sheriff said, as Fricker’s father Jerry, who’d owned a scrapyard most of his life, had done business with Tipton. Fricker’s friendly voice apparently drew Tipton out of the camper without fear that he was going to get shot upon emergence…and he was taken into custody without incident.
As if to underscore the success of the peaceful apprehension, a photo was captured on-scene at the camper in Cave, showing Fricker conversing with a handcuffed Tipton, who almost appeared relieved to be taken in.
Fricker later disclosed that the property owner where the camper was sited was aware that Tipton was there, but “didn’t want to be involved,” instead, telling whomever it was that dropped Tipton off (after he’d apparently picked up a ride) “when I come back, he’d better be gone.”
There have been no associated arrests with those who were involved with Tipton’s delivery to Cave. Yet, at any rate.
Upgrades
All three are now facing additional charges of Escape from a Penal Institution to add to their legal woes, and those charges are being taken up in separate court appearances that will continue for several weeks, very likely.
Joshua Kennedy
In the meantime, Maier is enduring heat from the public over the jailbreak, which actually is the second to occur in less than four years (the last one was effected by two inmates tunneling through the ceiling of their cell and out the building that way; the building’s ceiling was secured at that time.)
Maier said that subsequent inspections since the June 2018 jailbreak have determined that the old building didn’t have reinforcements in the cinderblocks, as are built to today’s standards, and so the simple fix was to run rebar (steel bars) down through the cinderblock at reoccurring intervals, then fill the entire thing with concrete. That way, even if the concrete is able to be chipped away, the rebar will prevent anyone from escaping, because the intervals for the bars are too small for even the smallest of inmates to wiggle through.
As well, a wire fence (as seen on page 1) now encircles the cell area of the jail, making another impassible barrier with razor wire atop it…and surveillance cameras on every corner, covering every area of the jail.
The U.S. Marshal’s service examined the upgrades in mid-July and pronounced them good, and the jail will once again be able to house federal inmates, which, Maier said, is a bonus to the taxpayer, as it offsets local costs of running the jail.
Maier did advise that there’s been one change made in jail staffing: Byrd Huber is now going to be jail administrator, replacing Randy Cobb.
“It’s nothing Randy did or didn’t do, but it’s time for a change, and the changes will help the staff inside the jail area to do their job.”
Maier did note that there were some policy violations found, but there was nothing in those that aided the situation of the inmates’ escape, and those are being addressed.
At the very least, anyone who’s “thinking about” attempting another escape from the White County Jail is going to have to contend with a lot more to “think” about if it ever occurs to an inmate again to do such a thing.
The photo of Johnny Tipton, left, and Hardin County Sheriff JT Fricker, was posted on Hardin County Sheriff’s Facebook page and distributed widely; it shows how an “old-school” sheriff can handle a wanted fugitive’s arrest without involving gunplay or a standoff, as Fricker simply called Tipton out of the camper he was hiding in at a rural Cave-in-Rock location.
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