A Pima County jail inmate who escaped and assaulted a veteran corrections officer early Friday was caught after being on the run for about nine hours.
William Louis Loveall, 51, was taken back into custody in Arivaca shortly before 11 a.m., said jail Corrections Chief Martha Cramer.
The manhunt for Loveall began just before 2 a.m. Friday after he broke away from a corrections officer who was preparing to take him from the jail's minimum-security facility to the kitchen at the main facility, where he works, Cramer said.
Loveall managed to squeeze through a nearby gate and was running away when he was tackled by corrections officer Patrick McGraw, who has been with the department for 20 years. A fight ensued and McGraw suffered injuries to his head and rib cage before Loveall got away, Cramer said.
Dozens of officers scoured the area but found only Loveall's shirt, which he'd discarded in a wash, Cramer said.
People are also reading…
Around 6:30 a.m., the Pima County Sheriff's Department received a tip from someone in Arivaca who said Loveall had been spotted in the town, where he lives, said Deputy Dawn Barkman, a Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.
The SWAT team and other deputies from the Sheriff's Department went to Arivaca, where they put up roadblocks, swept the area and checked several properties, she said.
Just before 11 a.m., a witness reported seeing Loveall riding an all-terrain vehicle, or quad, on Arivaca Road, Barkman said. When deputies arrived in the area, they saw Loveall coming out of the desert.
The deputies commanded Loveall to stop and surrender, but he did not, she said. He was arrested after he crashed his quad into a tree and it rolled.
He did not suffer any apparent injuries and was booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of aggravated assault on a corrections officer and escaping from an institution, Barkman said.
Officials suspect that Loveall planned the escape and may have gotten a ride to Arivaca, Barkman said.
According to court records, Loveall was arrested June 18 after marijuana and more than a dozen guns were discovered at his mother's home. At that time, authorities learned that he had not reported to his probation officer for four months.
He was booked into the Pima County jail on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, possession of a dangerous drug, possession of a weapon by a prohibited possessor and violating probation. He had been placed on probation in 2004 after he was caught with marijuana in the back of his truck.
In a presentencing report filed Aug. 14, Loveall denied having anything to do with the guns or drugs found at his mother's home. He said he did not report to his probation officer because he was ill. Loveall also requested that the penalty for violating his probation be the 59 days he had already served.
His attorney wrote: "While Mr. Loveall may not be the best probationer in Pima County, he is ever farther away from the other extreme. It is simply too early to simply give up on him.
"His current incarceration has scared him to death. He told counsel he will never violate again. The thought of going back in is just too much."
With that, Pima County Superior Court Judge Christopher Browning sentenced Loveall to 120 days in the minimum-security unit for the probation violation and his original 2004 conviction for transportation of marijuana for sale. Records show Browning also said Loveall was eligible for a work-furlough program.
The other weapons and drug charges are still pending.
Rather than have Loveall out in the community, Cramer said, the jail assigned him to a job in the kitchen where he would be supervised by a corrections officer.
Cramer said almost all of the inmates in the minimum-security facility are in work programs. Since 2001, 89 inmates have escaped from the minimum-security facility.
McGraw was taken to Tucson Medical Center, where he was to be kept overnight, Cramer said.
