News Staff Report
An inmate who tried to escape Wednesday night, December 19, from Fountain Correctional Facility near Atmore enjoyed only about three hours outside his cell before he was located on the prison grounds and taken back into custody.
According to escape and recapture alerts issued by Alabama Department of Corrections officials, 34-year-old Ernest Allen Mitchell Jr. was able to get out of his dormitory without being detected and was designated an escapee when a head count detected his absence around 9:30 p.m.
Mitchell, who was given a life sentence after a 2014 robbery conviction in Mobile County, saw his freedom end three hours later when a prison K9 unit sniffed him out in the medium-security facility’s fleet service yard around 12:30 a.m., Thursday.
According to court records, Mitchell was arrested in Wilmer in May of 2013 after he attacked a woman and stole her car. He was sentenced on July 31, 2014.
Court documents also show that he had been convicted a year earlier, in June 2013, of first-degree robbery and receiving stolen property.
Including credit for time spent in the Mobile County Jail, Mitchell has served just over five years of his sentence.
ALDOC officials say he will likely have a charge of escape from custody added to his rap sheet.