A Columbus man was sentenced to 32 years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to escaping the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, attempting to steal a vehicle and cocaine charges.
Terry Lashaun Brooks, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lowndes County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to five years for escape and seven years for burglary of an automobile as a repeat offender, 16th Circuit District Attorney Scott Colom told The Dispatch. As a repeat offender, Brooks must serve every day of those sentences.
Brooks was also sentenced to a consecutive 20-year sentence for an unrelated possession of cocaine charge, bringing his total sentence to 32 years, according to a press release from Colom’s office. Brooks will be eligible for parole during the drug sentence, Colom told The Dispatch.
“Terry Brooks believed he was above the law,” Colom said in the press release. “He believed that he didn’t have to follow the rules of society. This sentence reflects the fact that no one is above the law, and if you break the law, you are going to jail for a very long time.”
Both the escape and burglary charges came from an Oct. 31, 2023, escape from the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center, the release said.
Brooks was in jail at the time after being charged with accessory after the fact in the December 2020 murder of Frank Edwards. Colom said that charge has since been dropped.
Brooks and an accomplice, Phillip Shane House, cut through a window in their cell block using a piece of metal turned into an ersatz saw, Sheriff Eddie Hawkins told The Dispatch shortly after the incident. The pair then got into the jail’s ventilation system and went from there to the outside world.
Brooks then navigated through razor wire by throwing blankets over it and slipped out through the outside fence, the release said. While Brooks’ accomplice was caught in the yard, Brooks managed to escape, leading to a manhunt.
Later that evening, Brooks attempted to steal a vehicle at Columbus Motors, leaving behind bloody handprints. DNA evidence was later used to verify his identity, the release said.
Brooks was recaptured by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals on Nov. 3, 2023. Hawkins told The Dispatch at that time that Brooks was found in the 1300 block of Ninth Avenue North and caught after a short foot chase.
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