Menu
Police quickly recapture escaped inmate Monday morning
A Cloverdale man who confessed to a pair of recent armed robberies now also faces an escape charge following a Monday morning incident.
Jacob Higdon, 22, briefly escaped custody of the Putnam County Sheriff's Department after being treated for an injury at Putnam County Hospital.
Due to the nature of Higdon's injuries, the jail officer could not cuff or shackle the inmate.
As the officer was transporting him back to the jail vehicle from the hospital, Higdon broke away, against the warnings of the officer.
Sheriff's deputies as well as Greencastle Police and Indiana State Police were called in to locate Higdon.
Although Higdon shed the orange shirt of his inmate jumpsuit, officers were told to search for a shirtless man in orange pants.
Following this description, officers located Higdon at The Storehouse Church (Assembly of God), 605 Westlane Rd., at 6:51 a.m., just 10 minutes after his escape.
Higdon did not encounter any civilians in the time he was out of custody, authorities said.
The escape charge comes in addition to a pair of Level 3 felony armed robbery charges and two counts of Class A misdmemeanor theft. The charges spring from a pair of robberies of the Cloverdale Marathon Station, to which Higdon confessed to police on Friday.
Higdon's Friday arrest also violated his probation following his January conviction of two Class C felony burglary counts.
In Putnam Superior Court Monday afternoon, Judge Denny Bridges entered not-guilty pleas on Higdon's behalf, including on a petition to revoke probation that involves a little more than three years backup time, the judge noted.
Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter, in asking for $100,000 cash bond for Higdon, entered into evidence a print-out of a Banner Graphic online story about the suspect's reported escape earlier in the day. Court paperwork in the escape case was not yet available, Bookwalter told the court.
Judge Bridges imposed the requested $100,000 cash bond, "because you're a flight risk," he told Higdon.
The judge also named Jeffrey Boggess as Higdon's court-appointed lawyer and set a June 19 pretrial conference in the case.
In addition, a no-trepassing order was issued against Higdon, prohibiting him from setting foot on the property of the Cloverdale Marathon station.