News

Actions

Oklahoma officials searching for one-armed man who walked away from correctional center

Posted at 3:50 PM, Mar 12, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-12 16:00:37-04

ATOKA, Okla. – Agents and security staff with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections are searching for a man who walked away from a correctional center Monday night.

James E. Smith

According to ODOC officials, at around 7:50 p.m. Monday, security staff at Howard McLeod Correctional Center, discovered 39-year-old James E. Smith missing after a resident near the site called the sheriff’s office complaining of a trespasser on their property.

Smith was serving several Stephens County sentences for armed robbery, firearms possession and escape after lawful arrest.

He is described as white, about 6 feet tall, weighing about 176 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. He is missing most of his right arm and a finger on his left hand. He also has multiple tattoos on his legs, back, arms and chest, including a gecko on his left arm, lightning bolts on his right and a shark on his back.

Related: Woman posing as deputy arrested for helping boyfriend escape Arkansas jail

ODOC officials said he is considered armed and dangerous.

The Howard McLeod Correctional Center is an unfenced, adult male minimum-security prison that houses more than 650 inmates outside of Atoka. Officials said ODOC’s Agri-Services’ unit uses the facility’s land, a 5,300-acre site, to produce beef cattle, hay, pecans and firewood with paid inmate labor.