Two jail escapees captured

Two Brewton residents who escaped from the Escambia County Detention Center's work release center are back behind bars with a tracking dog team running one down Saturday in the Wawbeek area and the second picked up Sunday afternoon walking down I-65 in Conecuh County wearing only his boxer shorts.

Christopher Ladale Pugh, 27, 1066 McGougin Road and Christopher Blake Moye, 27, 510 Moye Drive, were arrested over the weekend and are back in the detention center facing felony escape charges.

Pugh was in jail on charges of receiving stolen property I, burglary III and faced a violation of probation on a previous arson II charge. He was previously arrested for escape but the charge was later dropped in a plea deal on other cases.

District Attorney Steve Billy said due to Pugh's five prior felony convictions he's facing a possible life sentence on the new escape III charge.

Moye was in jail on two counts of theft of property I, theft of property III and a violation of probation. Billy said Moye was facing a possible 10-year prison term on the balance of his theft charges and now faces an additional two to 20 years in prison.

Heath Jackson, who officially took over as Escambia County sheriff Tuesday morning said the two inmates had been gone from the work release barracks next to the sheriff's office for about an hour before they were discovered missing about 11 a.m. Friday.

Jackson said the two escaped after discovering a design flaw with the building.

Multiple law enforcement agencies and K-9 tracking teams set up a perimeter and searched the Brewton area for about six hours before losing the track.

Saturday, sheriff's deputies were dispatched to Whites Lane in the Wawbeek community to an attempted burglary charge. Jackson noted in his report that the description of the suspect matched Moye and K-9 teams from the Alabama Department of Corrections, Camp 5 Road Prison and the Century Correctional Institute were dispatched to the area.

Following a search that lasted about seven hours, Moye was taken into custody.

Jackson said Moye spent two days in the hospital recovering from wounds he received from the razor wire around the work release center prior to being transported to the detention center.

Sunday afternoon an officer with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency was dispatched to I-65 in reference to a person walking down the interstate wearing only his boxer shorts.

Jackson reported when the officer approached the subject, later identified as Pugh, who told the officer "please take me back to jail". Pugh was arrested and transported to the detention center in Brewton.

In addition to the K-9 units, police departments from Brewton, East Brewton, Atmore and Flomaton assisted sheriff's deputies in the search along with the U.S. Marshal Service's Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Escambia County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office.

"I would like to thank our deputies and all the others for their hard work in getting the two individuals back in custody," Jackson said. "We couldn't have done it without their teamwork and I would like to say job well done."