A Mississippi Department of Corrections inmate who escaped while on a hardship visit is back in custody.
Mississippi prisoner Garnett Hughes, 33, who escaped two guards enroute to his mother’s funeral Friday in Belzoni was recaptured in Ohio Tuesday morning.
Hughes, serving multiple life sentences for kidnapping and sexual battery, led law enforcement on a five-day, 900-mile manhunt.
An Ohio woman, 51-year-old Yvette Mendoza, identified as Hughes’ girlfriend was also arrested for aiding in Hughes’ escape.
MDOC investigators in tandem with the U.S. Marshal Service in Mississippi connected with the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force to make the arrest.
The Ohio marshals who surprised Hughes this morning say the inmate was still wearing one of his handcuffs.
The six-foot-one, 170-pound Hughes was convicted in 2014 in Alcorn County on two counts of kidnapping and sexual battery for which he received multiple life sentences.
At the time of his escape, Hughes was housed at East Mississippi Correctional Facility, west of Meridian, which is operated and managed by the private prison management firm Management Training Company, or MTC, based in Utah.
Director of MDOC Investigative Division John Hunt said the investigation is ongoing.
