By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Report
A Fountain Correctional Facility inmate who escaped July 14 enjoyed barely an hour of freedom before he was back in custody.
According to Alabama Department of Corrections officials, 46-year-old Jesse Lee Tidwell Jr. escaped from FCF officers at 2:17 p.m. last Wednesday while he was being treated for an unspecified medical condition at North Baldwin Infirmary in Bay Minette.
Tidwell reportedly ran from the hospital and into a wooded area near the hospital.
Bay Minette police and ADOC K9 officers tracked the escapee to the nearby Baldwin County School Bus Maintenance Yard, where he was discovered at 3:26 p.m., hiding in a wooden box.
Tidwell was convicted in Lauderdale County in 2014 of second-degree forgery and was serving a 30-year term for a 2013 conviction in Colbert County of second-degree rape and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
According to ADOC records, he has been convicted of several crimes and has served more than 18 years in prison since 1994.