Mississippi prison staff charged with inmate escape

HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi prison employee has been arrested on suspicion of helping to escape Joshua Zimmerman in June. The inmate fled to Chicago and was arrested last week after a 15-hour standoff with police at a restaurant just blocks from the Democratic National Convention.

Ronnie Hunt was charged with transporting items useful in a prisoner's escape, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Bailey Martin said Tuesday. Martin said “additional charges are likely.” She did not respond when asked if Hunt is represented by an attorney.

The DeSoto County Sheriff's Department said Hunt, 32, had been fired from his job as a deputy jailer, WREG-TV reported. He was being held at the jail in Lafayette County, Mississippi, about an hour's drive away.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Zimmerman escaped from the DeSoto County Courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi, on June 14, where he was being held on attempted murder and armed robbery charges. He is also awaiting extradition to Houston, where he faces murder charges, the Marshals Service said.

Investigators said last week they believe Zimmerman worked at the seafood restaurant where he was arrested. The restaurant is about a half-mile from the United Center, where the convention was being held. The Marshals Service said there was “no connection or threat to the event or attendees.”

Zimmerman was not wearing a prison uniform but plain clothes when he escaped in Mississippi. A screenshot from a courthouse surveillance video showed him wearing khaki pants and a white shirt and not handcuffed.

According to court records in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of shooting a woman, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on Sept. 2, 2023. The two were asked to leave the motel after there were multiple complaints of a fight, and when staff checked the room to see if they had left, they found Mercer's body with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Court records also show that Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on sexual assault charges. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $200,000 bail, but a warrant was later issued for his arrest.

DeSoto County Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle II told WREG-TV after Zimmerman's escape: “The idea that he had help is false. The idea that he had extra clothes is false. He is a career criminal. He knew what he was doing.”

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