Escape results in manhunt, school lockdown

November 23, 2006

By BEN GARRETT
Independent Herald Editor

HUNTSVILLE — An escape of a criminal suspect in Sessions Court on Wednesday (Nov. 15) afternoon resulted in an intensive manhunt by the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and Huntsville School being placed under lock-down procedures. The suspect was eventually recaptured.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, Clifford Sexton, Jr., age 35, of Cherry Fork Road in Helenwood, escaped during an appearance in Sessions Court shortly after noon on Wednesday.

Sexton, who was charged with theft over $1,000 and theft under $500 and was in court to face arraignment on those charges, managed to slip his restraints and escape from the upstairs courtroom of the Scott County Courthouse. Authorities believe that a handcuff key had been slipped to Sexton during short contact with a civilian inside the courtroom.

Exactly where Sexton’s attempt to flee the area of the courthouse took him was not immediately clear. However, at 12:25 p.m., E-911 dispatch received a call that Sexton was spotted running across the football field at Huntsville Middle School in the direction of the school’s football fieldhouse. Captain Rick Ward, who was heading up the manhunt, called for Huntsville Middle and Huntsville Elementary to immediately be placed in lock-down, a situation in which the entrances to the school and individual classroom entrances are all locked and all students remain inside classrooms and away from doors and windows.

Ward also charged deputies to set up a perimeter around the school campus. Officers also began conducting a thorough search of the wooded area in the Huntsville Hill area directly behind Huntsville School, including several rock overhangs and rock houses known to exist in the area.

At around 1 p.m., Brushy Mountain State Penitentary’s search dog team was deployed en route to Scott County to assist with the manhunt. The team was successful in aiding local law enforcement with the capture of the “Mountain Man” during a high-profile manhunt in the Wilderness Resorts area near Station Camp last year.

After about an hour of searching the area behind the school, as well as setting up a perimeter around Sexton’s Cherry Fork Road residence, law enforcement received a tip that Sexton had sought refuge at a nearby residence. At 1:40 p.m., he was apprehended at a home on Brooks Gap Road nearby.

In addition to his theft charges, Sexton now faces charges of felony escape.

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