PHENIX CITY, Ala. – Two escaped murder suspects from Alabama were caught Tuesday morning in Columbus, Ga., after an Alabama prison break in which a guard was stabbed 15 times with a makeshift knife.
Television station WTVM in Columbus reported that Johnny Earl Jones and Lamar Elan Benton were apprehended at the Georgian Motel without incident.
Jones, 17, was charged in the murder of a child he was baby-sitting, and Benton, 19, was charged in the murder and rape of a woman. They fled from the Russell County Jail in Phenix City early Saturday.
A third murder suspect, 33-year-old Brent Edward Martin, got out with Jones and Benton but was quickly recaptured by officers using tracking dogs and helicopters.
The three men assaulted two guards, then went to the front of the jail, where they knocked down another officer, took her keys and fled, Russell County Sheriff Tommy Boswell said.
"We had two correctional officers doing a security check through the building, and they were physically attacked by three inmates," he said. One guard, Matthew Waldrup, was stabbed 15 times with a makeshift knife and was recovering at home.
“He’s improving,” Boswell said.
Of reports the escape was related to the facility's being filled higher than capacity, Boswell said: “Overcrowding was not a factor in this case."
Phenix City is across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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