South Carolina Prison Escape: Inmate Sought, Again

COLUMBIA, SC — Authorities are looking for an inmate they believe has made his second escape from a maximum-security South Carolina prison.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe says officers began searching Wednesday afternoon for Jimmy Causey, an inmate at Lieber Correctional Institution, about 90 miles (149 km) southeast of Columbia in Ridgeville.

Causey has now escaped from two different prisons in a dozen years. He and another inmate escaped Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia in 2004 by hiding in a trash truck. They were captured three days later. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Sharpe says authorities began looking for Causey just before 2 p.m. Wednesday. No other details have been released.

Causey was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 after he was convicted of holding Columbia attorney Jack Swerling and his family at gunpoint in their home.

By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press

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