Lieber Prison Escape: Drone Dropped Wire Cutters, Probably: Authorities

RIDGEVILLE, SC — Wire cutters likely dropped from a drone helped a Lieber Correctional Institution inmate to escape, authorities said Friday after his capture.

A tip led Texas Rangers to a motel room in Austin where Jimmy Causey was found asleep early Friday, South Carolina state police said. His escape lasted more than two days. The elaborate plot also involved smuggled cellphones, guns and at least $47,000 in cash, authorities said.

CAPTURED: Escaped inmate Jimmy Causey was apprehended this morning at 3:05 a.m. by Texas Department of Public Safety pic.twitter.com/SMNRAgJbs0
— SC Dept. Corrections (@SCDCNews) July 7, 2017

Prison officials are looking into why no one noticed Causey had escaped for 18 hours, South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said. (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.)

It was Causey's second escape from maximum security prisons in South Carolina since being sentenced to life in prison 13 years ago for holding a lawyer at gunpoint in his Columbia home. Authorities have said Causey didn't feel the defense attorney did enough to keep him out of prison in the early 1990s.

The first time, Causey and another inmate hid in a garbage truck leaving prison and were arrested three days later after a woman delivering pizza to a motel called police because she thought they looked suspicious.

The second time, Causey had a well-thought out plan, coordinating his escape with a smuggled cellphone and cutting through four fences with wire cutters, likely dropped to him in the prison yard from a drone, Stirling said. Stirling didn't elaborate on why authorities believe a drone was used.

Like the first time, Causey, 46, fooled guards by putting a dummy in his bed. He escaped around 8 p.m. on July 4, but prison officials didn't realize he was gone until 2 p.m. the next day, Stirling said.

Stirling wouldn't talk specifically about whether guards did anything wrong that night, but did say "sometimes the staff just has to follow policies and procedures."

Investigators are trying to figure out how Causey got all of that cash. He had four cellphones with him and an ID card, State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said.

"Everyone who assisted him —we intend on bringing them to justice as well," Keel said.

SCDC Director Bryan Stirling and SLED Chief Mark Keel speaking about inmate Jimmy Causey's escape and subsequent apprehension pic.twitter.com/gDq8OV29ZE
— SC Dept. Corrections (@SCDCNews) July 7, 2017

The motel room where Causey was arrested is about 1,200 miles from the South Carolina prison near Charleston where he escaped.

Following his first capture, Causey was held in South Carolina's most secure, super-max facility in Columbia, but he was eventually returned to the system's general population.

Stirling wouldn't give details about where Causey would be held this time, except to say it will be "a high, high security unit."

By Meg Kinnard, Associated Press

Photo credit: South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP