Terry Leshaun Brooks is back in custody, and the woman whose home he was allegedly hiding in has been charged as an accessory to his escape.
Brooks, 42, was one of two inmates who escaped from the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center Tuesday night. He was recaptured about 2 a.m. Friday in Columbus, according to Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins.
“It was good old-fashioned police work,” Hawkins told The Dispatch. “We got a lot of tips, most of which were rumors, but we were able to run him down.”
Hawkins said Brooks was found in the 1300 block of Ninth Avenue North and recaptured after a short foot chase.
Investigators got a fix on Brooks and set up a perimeter around the house where he was hiding, Hawkins said. Brooks saw the authorities approaching and tried to run.
“He resisted,” Hawkins said. “He fought the officers. He was punching and pulling away, and grabbing officers’ hands and trying to twist fingers and break hands.”
Also arrested was Georgeanna Harvill, 38, of Columbus. Brooks was hiding in her house, Hawkins said, and she has been charged as an accessory after the fact.
“She was hiding him and hindering prosecution,” Hawkins said. “… We found evidence in the house that he had been there, and of course we saw him fleeing when we approached.”
Harvill was still in custody at the LCADC as of press time. Bond is set at $100,000.
Brooks leaves accomplice holding the bag
Hawkins said Brooks acquired a piece of metal he turned into an ersatz saw. He used that to cut open a window in a common area that led into a ventilation duct.
Other prisoners were aware of Brooks’ plan and worked to distract the guards while Brooks sawed through the window cover, Hawkins said. The window allowed Brooks and his accomplice, Phillip Shane House, to get into the jail’s ventilation system and from there to the outside world.
The plan started to come apart almost immediately, Hawkins said. A passerby saw Brooks and House emerge from a louvered ventilation duct on the outside of the building and alerted deputies while the men tried to get through multiple lines of fencing outside the jail.
“He and (House) got outside the building,” Hawkins said during a press conference Friday in the LCSO lobby. “They helped each other get the fence apart so (Brooks) could get through it. The plan was for him to help (House) escape as well, but he didn’t do that. He left him behind.”
House was apprehended when he was still inside the perimeter, Hawkins said.
Brooks, who now also faces an escape charge, was in jail after being charged with accessory after the fact in the December 2020 murder of Frank Edwards. He allegedly helped Edwards’ killer, Kenny Armistead, elude capture. He also faces cocaine possession, parole violation and weapons charges.
House was in jail in connection with the June murder of his girlfriend, Summer Danielle Tennyson, in Caledonia.
Also arrested the night of the escape was Steven Douglas Jennings, who allegedly spoke to Brooks by phone and helped facilitate the escape.
Investigation continues into how escape happened
Hawkins said investigators were still trying to figure out how Brooks got the metal for his improvised saw. The jail will also review its protocols to make sure others can’t repeat Brooks’ escape.
“We’re going to keep the inmates on lockdown until we get new security measures in place and make sure we don’t have another situation like this,” Hawkins said. “We’re working toward fixing the problems and making sure we can keep a better eye on things.”
Lockdown means the inmates will be confined to their cells.
Hawkins said there would be no disciplinary measures taken against the jailers, and all protocols were followed.
Hawkins defended not putting out any kind of official release for five hours after the escape took place.
“I kind of had my hands full when (The Dispatch) called me (the night of the escape),” Hawkins said. “The public knew. It was all over Facebook, and WCBI and WTVA had crews set up in my parking lot. I try to be as transparent as I can be, but there were a lot of things going on.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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