Two escaped convicts from Arkansas who led police and troopers on a high-speed chase before being caught in Hornell are back in prison.
Steuben County Sheriff Joel Ordway said Jeffrey Grinder, 32, and Calvin Adams, 39, boarded a law enforcement jet around 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport and were sent back to the state from which they escaped.
“They contacted us Friday evening — the Arkansas Department of Corrections — they flew a jet out Saturday and it landed at the Elmira-Corning area airport where we transferred custody,” said Ordway. “It’s a stress reliever to have them gone. They are high-profile inmates and it requires us to upgrade security for their court appearances.”
Grinder and Adams waived their rights to dispute extradition back to Arkansas during court hearings in the Hornell city court Thursday and the Steuben County Supreme Court on Friday.
Members of the Steuben County Critical Incident Response Team, clad in tactical uniforms and body armor, and Steuben and Chemung County sheriff’s deputies escorted the two men to the jet with television news crews recording.
The two are expected to be charged with second-degree escape, a class C felony in Arkansas, now that they are returned.
Steuben County District Attorney John Tunney said traffic charges against Adams, the driver during the chase, will not be sought. Adams could have been charged at the county level with first-degree reckless endangerment.
“I have no interest in keeping convicted murders in Steuben County, A; and B, for people destined to spend the rest of their lives behind bars there is no incentive for charging them with an additional crime,” Tunney said.
The men lead authorities on an 18-mile high-speed chase that entered Hornell on state Route 21 and was called off for the safety of the public. The pair abandoned their vehicle at the intersection of Maple Street and Cameron Avenue, both dead-end streets, and fled.
Hornell police officers Kate Gleason and Sgt. Todd Giglio and state police investigator George Grbic caught the men in the backyard of a home on Wesley Avenue. No one was hurt during the incident, and no weapons were found in their vehicle.
The men told Hornell police they were traveling to New York City, and are not believed to have any family or friends in the area.
Arkansas State Police said Tuesday they arrested three people over the weekend suspected of providing the car to the inmates to help with their escape. Five Correction Department officers also have been put on unpaid leave while the department investigates the escape.
Among the jobs for inmates at the Cummins Unit is making uniforms for jail guards and law officers. Video surveillance shows the men put the uniforms on in the prison library after the 6 p.m. headcount and walked out of the prison unchallenged during a shift change less than 20 minutes later on May 29.
Ordway said the guard uniforms used in the escape that were found by Hornell police and other evidence were turned over to the Arkansas Department of Corrections along with the men.
A spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Corrections, Dina Tyler, said the men have been communicating with authorities about their escape and they will be housed in single cells with solid doors.
Adams and Grinder were serving life sentences without possibility of parole for capital murder when they escaped.
The Evening Tribune
