Ohio police search for another escaped prisoner as state still reels from last week’s jailbreak

Law enforcement in Akron, Ohio, are searching for a prisoner who escaped custody early Tuesday while being transported to a doctor’s appointment. 

The Summit County Sheriff’s Office issued an alert about escaped inmate Jason Lyle Conrad. 

At 8 a.m., a deputy transported Conrad to Summa Health White Pond Medical Center in Akron. Conrad was handcuffed and in a boot for a previous injury, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. 

While the deputy was removing the inmate from the transport vehicle, Conrad “was able to escape and ran away after removing the boot,” the alert said. 

OHIO INMATE WHO ESCAPED PRISON FOUND DEAD AFTER BOATER FINDS BODY FLOATING IN RIVER 

Sheriff’s deputies, Akron, Fairlawn, and Copley officers, and Highway Patrol troopers are assisting in the search.

The sheriff’s office described as Conrad as a White male, standing 5-feet-9-inches tall, and weighing roughly 150 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes, and is possibly wearing an orange shirt and pants, or blue shorts. 

Conrad is facing charges of willfully fleeing, possession of drugs, trafficking in drugs and a parole violation.

The manhunt comes after authorities elsewhere in Ohio faced the since-resolved escape of two other prisoners last week. 

OHIO DEPUTIES SEARCHING FOR 2 ESCAPED PRISONERS CONSIDERED ‘ARMED AND DANGEROUS’

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Friday afternoon that investigators had determined that 47-year-old James Lee and 50-year-old Bradley Gillespie left the Allen/Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima “after concealing themselves in a dumpster.”

The two men were reported missing May 23 after Lee’s absence was discovered during an 11 a.m. prisoner count, and an emergency count then revealed that Gillespie was also missing. 

Lee, serving a sentence imposed in 2021 for burglary and safecracking, was recaptured early Wednesday in Kentucky after a police pursuit of a stolen car the men were believed to be in ended in a crash and a foot chase, authorities said.

Gillespie, imprisoned since 2016 for murder, was found dead Sunday after his body was spotted floating in the Ohio River, Henderson Police Chief Sean McKinney said at a news conference. 

Henderson is a city across the Ohio River from Indiana and about 350 miles southwest of Lima, Ohio, where authorities said the inmates escaped May 22. 

A major and three corrections officers have been placed on paid administrative leave and similar action may be taken against other people as the department’s internal investigation continues, officials have said. A criminal investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol is also continuing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.