Three Lima, Ohio prison inmates spent months building a 13.5 foot ladder which they used to escape back in September.
A state prison report released Friday revealed that T.J. Lane, Lindsey Bruce and Clifford Opperud were all quickly apprehended.
One of the inmates had previously made headlines – On February 27, 2012, Lane went on a shooting rampage at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio that killed three. While in court, he wore a white t-shirt with the word “KILLER” written on it in black marker, and leered and smirked at the victims’ families. Lane addressed the court with his middle finger, and shocked onlookers when he remarked, “This hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory. Fuck all of you.”
Here is a clip of the courtroom proceedings:
Since Lane was 17 at the times of the shootings, the death penalty wasn’t available for prosecutors to pursue, so he was sentenced to life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole.
There is no more disgusting human on this earth than T.J Lane
— Chummer (@526chick) November 9, 2014
T.J Lane was a complete savage.
— Charles Correnti (@charlescorrenti) November 13, 2014
The prisoners were able to pick a padlock on a door to a maintenance area, and used materials they found there to build the ladder. On September 11, they used the ladder to climb to the roof of an administration building at the prison entrance. During the evening recreation period they then jumped 15 feet to the ground outside the prison and ran through a soybean field.
Bruce was apprehended nine minutes after the escape, and Lane was caught early the next morning in a wooded area near the prison grounds. Opperud was nabbed three hours after Lane.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction posted a video of the escape attempt.
The men were initially placed in special housing away from the general prison population, for their own safety, and all have since been transferred to Ohio’s highest-security facility.
Prison officials ramped up security during recreation times, and extra razor wire was added to the perimeter fencing.