Two inmates were apprehended shortly after escaping from the Calhoun County Jail in the early morning hours Tuesday. Christopher Jack Leach and Kristopher Dean Honrine, both 19, have been charged with escape, as well as resisting arrest with violence. Leach is also charged with battery on a law enforcement officer.
According to the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, the correctional officer on duty passed out bed linens and locked down the dorm. Around 12:30 a.m., he retrieved his lunch from his vehicle and re-entered the facility, stopping to introduce himself to a new employee in dispatch. About half an hour later, he heard a loud bang on the jail door and an inmate advised Honrine and Leach had escaped. The pair allegedly fled through a back exit.
Law enforcement officers from the CCSO, BPD, and FHP, as well as a K-9 tracking team from Calhoun Correctional Institution, were dispatched to the area. A tip came in that the inmates were at McDonald’s. Capt. Michael Bryant spotted the pair in the lobby of the restaurant. The inmates saw him, then fled out a side door toward Subway.
An off-duty deputy from Franklin County was in the McDonald’s parking lot and alerted authorities to the inmates hiding in the bushes. The pair fled again and Cpl. Eddie Dalton located Leach on Gaskin Street. As Cpl. Dalton ordered Leach to stop running, Leach allegedly headed toward him in an aggressive manner, raised his right hand and swung at Cpl. Dalton’s face with a closed fist. Cpl. Dalton dodged him and took him into custody with Leach hitting and kicking as he was handcuffed.
Sheriff Tatum tracked Honrine beneath the bushes outside Superior Bank. Cpl. Dalton and Trooper Wes Harsey struggled with Honrine briefly as they took him into custody.
The pair were back behind bars by 2 a.m.