A former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks” spent months planning his escape from an Arkansas prison, and said lax security in the kitchen where he worked allowed the convicted murderer to gather the supplies he needed, according to an internal review.
The Arkansas Department of Corrections’ critical incident review of Grant Hardin‘s May 25 escape from the Calico Rock prison, obtained by The Associated Press, provides the most detailed description so far of his planning and the issues that allowed him to walk out of the facility.
Hardin was apprehended on June 6, “just a short distance” from the prison. Tracking dogs were able to pick up a scent, roughly a mile and a half west of the prison’s North Central Unit. It was initially believed that Hardin may have fled the state.
Authorities used canines, drones and helicopters to scour the rugged northern Arkansas terrain, and faced challenges searching the areas as heavy rain hit the area at the time.
Authorities said he escaped by donning an outfit he designed to look like a law enforcement uniform.
Hardin, who worked in the prison’s kitchen, said he spent six months planning his escape and used black Sharpie markers and laundry he found lying around the kitchen to create the fake uniform, according to the report. Hardin fashioned a fake badge using the lid of a can.
“Hardin stated he would hide the clothes and other items he was going to need in the bottom of a trash can in the kitchen due to no one ever shaking it down,” the report says.
Two prison employees have been fired for procedure violations that led to Hardin’s escape. They include a kitchen employee who allowed Hardin on a back dock unsupervised and a tower guard who unlocked the back gate that Hardin walked through without confirming his identity. Several other employees have been suspended and one demoted, lawmakers were told this week.
The kitchen’s staff was “very lax on security,” Hardin told investigators, allowing him to gather what he needed for his escape. Hardin said he didn’t have any help from staff or other inmates. Hardin had constructed a ladder from wooden pallets in case he needed to scale the prison fence but didn’t need it.
“(Hardin) stated when he walked up to the gate, he just directed the officer to ‘open the gate,’ and he did,” the report says.
After he escaped from the prison, Hardin survived on food he had smuggled out of the prison along with distilled water from his CPAP machine. Hardin also drank creek water and ate berries, bird eggs and ants.
“He said his plan was to hide in the woods for six months if need be and begin moving west out of the area,” the report says.
Hardin was previously the police chief of the small town of Gateway, Arkansas. He was the subject of the TV documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”
Hardin was serving multiple sentences after he pleaded guilty to both rape and murder, CBS News previously reported. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for fatally shooting 59-year-old James Appleton in 2017 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While he was imprisoned in that case, police matched his DNA to samples taken from a 1997 rape case. Hardin pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in 2019, according to CBS affiliate KFSM, and was sentenced to 25 years for each count.
The report is one of two reviews into Hardin’s escape, which is also being investigated by the Arkansas State Police. A legislative subcommittee has also been holding hearings about the escape.
Republican state Rep. Howard Beaty, who co-chairs the Legislative Council’s Charitable, Penal and Correctional Institutions Subcommittee, said the panel hoped to discuss both reports with officials at a hearing next month.
Republican state Sen. Ben Gilmore, who sits on the panel, said he didn’t think the department’s review took a thorough enough look at the systemic issues that enabled Hardin’s escape.
“They have focused on the final failure instead of all of the things that led up to it,” he said.
The report also cites confusion among corrections officials in the early stages of Hardin’s escape about which law enforcement agencies had been notified, the report says.
“It is obvious there was a lot of confusion during the beginning stages of opening the command center and of notifications being made,” the report says.
Hardin had been misclassified and shouldn’t have been held at the primarily medium-security prison, according to the review. After he was captured, Hardin was moved to a maximum-security prison. He has pleaded not guilty to escape charges, and his trial is set for November.
Hardin’s custody classification hadn’t been reviewed since October 2019, the report says.
The state Department of Corrections’ review says officials had taken several steps since Hardin’s escape, including removing the electric locks from the gates to prevent someone from walking out without an officer present.
The report also calls for additional cameras after finding a blind spot on the dock Hardin used, and for any “shakedown” searches for contraband to include mechanical rooms and side rooms.
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