Two escaped inmates captured in Waynesboro

WAYNE COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - Two inmates who escaped from the Wayne County Jail early Thursday morning are back in custody.

Wayne County Sheriff Jody Ashley said Jonathan Kane Brown and Billy Takota Hinton were captured in Waynesboro Thursday evening after escaping around midnight.

Ashley said other people were also taken into custody with Brown and Hinton and could face charges for allegedly assisting them.

The two men were being held in the Wayne County Jail on burglary charges before the escape.

According to Ashley, one of the men faked being sick before they assaulted a jailer with a metal rod. They then took the jailer’s keys and escaped.

The jailer was sent to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

According to the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Brown was previously convicted of statutory rape in Wayne County. Hinton had been convicted of nonresidential burglary in Greene County.

Ashley said several law enforcement agencies assisted in the manhunt, including U.S. Marshals, MDOC, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Waynesboro Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and several surrounding sheriff’s departments.