The Amite County Sheriff’s Department is entering Day 8 of its search for a man who escaped from the jail’s exercise yard on Oct. 15 after inmates helped him slip through a fence.
Amite Sheriff Tim Wroten said Michael Wayne Young, 42, was likely headed to Pike County, where he has family, after he eluded a manhunt Tuesday.
McComb police and Pike County sheriff’s officials said Friday they are advising officers to be on the lookout for Young, who has a track record of going on the lam.
He was sentenced in Franklin County Circuit Court in September to two concurrent five-year sentences after pleading guilty to possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and escape. The escape charge pertains to when he walked off a work detail in Franklin County in August and ended up in Pike County, where his relatives turned him in.
Franklin County routinely sends its inmates to Amite County, and Young was awaiting transfer to a state prison when he escaped, Wroten said.
“We are continuing to look for Young. If anyone sees anything suspicious, please call us,” Wroten said. “We are running down every lead.
“We believe he may be in Pike County, we just don’t know where,” he said.
Wroten said authorities are seeking anonymous tips from citizens.
“We’re still searching for tips from Crimestoppers,” Wroten said.
Young, with the alleged help of fellow Amite County inmates Nathan Lofton, 37, Dalton Rollins, 22, and Richard Sikes, Jr., 23, unraveled wire at the bottom of the fence in the exercise yard and pulled it back as Young and Lofton got out.
Lofton allegedly acted as a distraction by walking around the jail and returning while Young made his getaway. Lofton has been charged with escape and conspiracy. Rollins and Sikes are charged with aiding in an escape and conspiracy.
Wroten said lawmen tracked Young to Amite County High School, where his trail went cold.
Residents initially reported seeing Young wearing only his underwear, but he found clothing by the time residents reported a second series of sightings on Tuesday.
A woman who lives along Old Highway 24 near Everett Bridge Road spotted a man who fit the description of Young around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The man, who was wearing blue jeans and carrying a black backpack, ran into the woods after he was spotted, Wroten said.
“We don’t know if it was him or not,” he said. “She just saw the man dart in the woods.”
Amite and Franklin county sheriff’s deputies, Centreville police and Mississippi Highway Patrol officer, along with a bloodhound team from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, searched for Young along Highway 24 before he was reportedly spotted miles away in the Thompson community getting into a car with a white male.
Wroten said lawmen stopped the vehicle at the Pike County line, but Young wasn’t in it.
“The car was stopped and officers spoke to him. It was confirmed it wasn’t him,” he said.
