By Jonnelle Davis
News & Record
WENTWORTH, Ga. — Rockingham County authorities Monday continued searching for an inmate they say is an experienced escape artist.
Maurice Alexander Williamson, 38, escaped over the weekend with help from a fellow inmate, sheriff’s officials say.
Williamson was being held on a $335,000 bond on multiple charges of breaking and entering and larceny. He has a long criminal history that includes previous convictions on those same charges, according to the N.C. Department of Correction.
He also has a history of escaping, authorities said. He twice escaped from prison while serving time for an Oct. 3, 1989, conviction on assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, according to Department of Correction records.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Dean Venable said he previously escaped from the Rockingham County jail in 1993.
Daniel Lamont Richardson, 36, of 210 Coleman Street in Eden, is charged with aiding and abetting Williamson’s escape. Richardson, a trustee, was being held on a charge of discharging a weapon into occupied property. He has a $100,000 bond on both charges, Venable said.
Venable said Williamson escaped during visitation hours late Saturday morning. Jail footage shows he climbed up into the ceiling and dropped inside the laundry room, where Richardson gave him clothes that let him blend in with visitors who were leaving the jail, the sheriff’s office said.
Jailers noticed Williamson was gone Sunday at the 6 a.m. inmate check.
Venable said he couldn’t say whether staff errors contributed to his escape.
“That will be our focus after we catch him,” Venable said.
Williamson is black, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. Anyone with information about him is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 634-3232 or Rockingham County Crime Stoppers at 349-9683.
Copyright 2009 News & Record (Greensboro, NC)