VAIDEN - Eight hours in Wednesday's cold, wet weather convinced Anthony Rowlett, 45, he was ready to go back to jail.
Rowlett phoned a friend and told him to notify authorities at the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility here to come and get him, said Deputy Warden Pete Misskelley.
Convicted in early 1999 of child molestation in Calhoun County, Rowlett is serving a 15-year sentence with the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He has been an inmate at the correctional facility since May 1999.
Chief Carroll Deputy Michael Spellman said he was in Misskelley's office when the call came from Rowlett's friend, John Brasfield of Houston.
"He said Rowlett told him he was at a Shell station about two miles away on the interstate," Spellman said, "but there isn't one matching that location. There is one across the highway from the jail, so we got in the car and drove there, saw Rowlett inside, and we cuffed him and brought him back to jail."
Rowlett had apparently become confused during his attempts to elude searchers, who confined him to about a half-mile square mostly wooded area.
He was attending a basic carpentry course taught by Charles M. Noah in the prison's shop Wednesday when he escaped shortly after 3 p.m., Misskelley said.
He used a pair of wire cutters to cut through the shop fence and then cut through the exterior fence on the west side of the campus. Sgt. Mattie Foreman reported the escape at 3:45 p.m. after an initial search. He was recaptured about 12:41 a.m. today.
"He told (Brasfield) to phone us and tell us he was cold, wet and thirsty and ready to come back," Misskelley said. "We brought him back, gave him a hot shower and clean clothes and took him to the infirmary." He had some scratches from briars, Misskelley said. At the time of the jailbreak Rowlett was clad in black and white striped prison uniform with a jacket.
Rowlett will be transferred from the Vaiden facility to Parchman soon.
