JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 24-year-old state prisoner who disappeared Wednesday from a work detail on Jacksonville's Westside was captured after a seven-hour manhunt less than a mile from the site of the work camp.
According to the Department of Corrections, Shayne Cooper-Olin was serving time on a conviction for burglary, grand theft and arson and had less than a year left on that sentence. He was working Wednesday with the Baker County Work Camp at the Florida Department of Transportation yard on Ellis Road South. When guards did a prisoner count around 12:30 p.m., they realized Cooper-Olin was not there.
K-9 and air units were dispatched to search for Cooper-Olin and police said he was found around 8 p.m. Wednesday, about seven hours after his escape.
Officers said they saw Cooper-Olin walking on the side of the road near the FDOT yard and he started running. The officers chased Cooper-Olin through the woods and around a pond before capturing and arresting him.
James Gibbs heads the Youth Athletic League across the street from where Cooper-Olin was caught.
"I got phone calls last night wanting to know was practice today going to be safe and everything, so when they apprehended the guy it was a sweat off my forehead," said Gibbs, who is president of JPJ Raiders Youth Sports.
Investigators said that when they caught him, Cooper-Olin admitted to smoking synthetic marijuana with an unknown male inmate at the FDOT yard. He said that was the last thing he remembered.
He said the next thing he knew he was walking by a truck place, saw a Hardee's and knew the DOT yard was close by, then walked back.
He told investigators that as he got near the yard, a guard called him, and he stopped, but as the guard got closer, he got scared and ran.
When police found him, he was no longer in his prison clothes and had on a black T-shirt and dark pants.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said someone could have left the K2 somewhere for the inmates, and they could have picked it up.
"If they have been working at this location for a couple of days, they knew that they were going to be coming back to that location the day of the incident," Smith said.
He said the alternative -- inmates smuggling it into the camp -- is unlikely.
"That's a possibility, but not likely because they do check, and they do search them a little more thoroughly when they're going to be out in the regular population," Smith said.
He said it's possible Cooper-Olin had time to smoke the K2 in the 9-minute window from when the guards last saw him to when he was reported missing.
The Department of Corrections issued a statement Thursday on Cooper-Olin's escape:
"On Wednesday, June 24, 2015, following the escape and recapture of inmate Shayne Cooper-Olin, the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) opened a comprehensive administrative investigation into the escape of this inmate. During the course of this investigation, the OIG will conduct a thorough debriefing of all inmates on the work crew, review of physical evidence and review of all fact patterns to determine if there was any possible wrong doing or breaches of security or protocol."
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the Florida Highway Patrol and multiple Department of Corrections K-9 teams were involved in the search and eventual capture of Cooper-Olin.
He now faces escape charges and is in the Duval County Jail.