Man charged with murder caught after escaping from Central Prison hospital in Raleigh
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly said the last escapes from Central Prison occurred in September 2019 and May 2020. The inmates escaped from Wake Correctional Institution and were later moved to Central Prison.
An inmate charged with murder who escaped from Central Prison Friday was captured two hours later about 50 miles away, Cumberland County sheriff Sheriff Ennis Wright said.
The inmate, Chad Lee Houser, 37, was arrested by the Spring Lake Police Department in Cumberland County, Wright said on Twitter.
Earlier, Wake County sheriff’s deputies and Raleigh police searched for him in the Boylan Heights neighborhood, near the prison on Western Boulevard.
A Facebook post from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office identified the escaped inmate as Houser.
Houser had been awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder, intentional child abuse causing serious bodily injury and fleeing to elude arrest, according to court records.
Houser was charged in the death of his 2-month-old son, a watch commander with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office told The News & Observer.
He was being held in Central Prison as a “safekeeper” at the request of Cumberland County authorities, said John Bull, a spokesman for N.C. Department of Public Safety. Counties do this if they can’t house people in their jails for reasons such as mental or physical health, if the person’s safety has been threatened or to avoid housing co-defendants together.
He needed to receive medical care at the Central Prison’s facilities for chest pain, said ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner.
Bull said Houser escaped around 5:30 p.m. Friday after walking out of the Central Prison hospital.
Houser, who has a tattoo of a dragon on the left side of his neck, stole a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, ABC11 reported.
The Silverado has the OnStar tracking service, which officials used to stop the truck, ABC reported. Some Chevrolet vehicles use OnStar stolen vehicle assistance, which operates a theft alarm, a signal that blocks the car’s ignition and turns off the car’s engine, according to Chevrolet’s website.
Central Prison is a close custody prison. “Inmates in close custody present the highest risk,” according to the NCDPS website.
Houser has previously been convicted of larceny of a motor vehicle and second-degree burglary.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 6:37 PM.