Escaped Ray County inmate Justin Robinson will be kept in higher security facility
A Ray County inmate who escaped in late March will be moved to a more secure facility, according to officials.
Justin Robinson, who was previously charged with first-degree domestic assault and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend, escaped the jail with another inmate. The pair allegedly used a shiv fashioned from metal that peeled off the jail wall to hit a jail worker around a dozen times in the neck before they fled.
Officials caught one of the inmates, but Robinson was one the run until U.S. Marshals captured him Monday at a Tulsa, Oklahoma bus station on his way to Texas.
In a video posted to Facebook, Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers said Robinson was wearing a new ironed shirt and a neck brace to cover a large tattoo. Robinson also had a cell phone, Childers said.
The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals are investigating to find anyone who helped Robinson escape and remain hidden from law enforcement to charge them with obstruction of justice and harboring a fugitive on the federal level, Childers said.
“We’re going to be looking at how he escaped, how he got where he did, the help he got,” Childers said.
Childers previously said issues in the jail allowed the inmates to escape, including metal peeling from the walls and ceilings that can easily be kicked in. In 2021, voters didn’t support an increased sales tax that would have raised funds to purchase a new facility.
