A Clayton County Jail inmate is back in custody after escaping from authorities at a hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
James Damonte Beasley became unaccounted for while at Southern Regional Medical Center, the sheriff’s office announced Saturday morning.
In a later statement, Sheriff Levon Allen said Beasley arrived at about 3 a.m. that morning for treatment and was secured in handcuffs and shackles while under surveillance by a correctional officer. But about two hours later, Beasley was “able to free himself from his restraints and flee the hospital premises,” the sheriff said.
According to Allen, Beasley changed his clothes and boarded a MARTA bus before he was spotted by law enforcement at the East Point MARTA station. He then stole a black Ford F-150 from a woman and drove away, the sheriff said.
Veronica Mason, an event planner, said she didn’t know Beasley was an escaped inmate when he stole her truck because he was wearing civilian clothes, according to Channel 2 Action News.
Mason said she believed he worked for the Conley Recreation Center, where she was setting up a baby shower that day. She said Beasley asked if she needed help unloading things off the truck before taking it, the news station reported. Mason eventually tried running after her vehicle.
“I was frantic,” she told Channel 2.
Following a brief chase, the sheriff said Beasley crashed the truck and was taken back into custody by 12:35 p.m. The sheriff did not say how he managed to free himself at the hospital after being secured in both handcuffs and shackles.
“Why was the ball dropped? We could have lost our life,” Mason told the news station.
According to the sheriff and jail records, he was booked in March for violating probation on a charge of theft by bringing stolen property into Georgia. Beasley is now facing several charges in Clayton, including escape, theft and entering auto. His new charges in Fulton County include robbery, theft, hit-and-run, and reckless driving, the sheriff said.
The escape occurred just over a month after another inmate was accidentally released from the jail.
In late March, a convicted murderer was released before he was transferred to prison, officials said at the time. Kathan Guzman had already been sentenced to life in prison for choking 19-year-old Delila Grayson to death in Clayton in August 2022.
The sheriff’s office discovered the mistake 12 days after Guzman was released from the jail, Sheriff Levon Allen said. The sheriff said the DA alerted him.
Guzman was eventually arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Florida.
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