Search for escaped inmates continues

Published 11:21 am Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Left to right,, Dennis Calaway, Kevin Campbell and Deandre Tompkins escaped from Elba Work Release custody. Campbell has since been spotted in the Highland Home area. Calaway is back in custody.

Left to right,, Dennis Calaway, Kevin Campbell and Deandre Tompkins escaped from Elba Work Release custody. Campbell has since been spotted in the Highland Home area. Calaway is back in custody.

An inmate spotted in Crenshaw County appears to have moved on as law enforcement continue their search.

“He was spotted in Jefferson County,” said Crenshaw County Sheriff Mickey Powell of escaped Elba inmate Kevin Randoph Campbell, 38.

Campbell was seen in Crenshaw County last week. A motorist reported seeing just north of the Montgomery County line last Wednesday morning, shortly after 8 a.m.

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“We’ve got tracking dogs and are headed that way,” said Crenshaw County Sheriff Mickey Powell during the search.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency spotted Campbell, near the Crenshaw Alcazar Shriners Temple at around 4:45 p.m. Aug. 4.

“He was just driving down the road in traffic,” Powell said.

Campbell was on a Yamaha Grizzly 660 4-wheeler, believed to have been stolen in the area. No one has reported the Yamaha stolen yet, but the recovered vehicle’s ignition had been tampered with and the 4-wheeler was hot-wired.

Once spotted, troopers chased Campbell past Sister Schubert’s factory and into the woods. Campbell evaded troopers in the thickly wooded area and Alabama Department of Corrections’ canines joined the search.

“The DOC lost the tracks around a pond south of Highland Home,” Powell said.

Law enforcement from the DOC, ALEA and CCSO continued the search, using ALEA aircraft. The search was called off at around 10:45 p.m., after tracking dogs could not recover Campbell’s scent. But deputies and U.S. Marshals remained in the area throughout the night.

“Campbell is from the Mobile/Baldwin County area and is not familiar with the area, as far as we’re aware,” Powell said.

Investigators predicted Campbell would attempt to steal another vehicle to escape the area. Powell asked that residents take any keys they had out of vehicles, observe surroundings and continue to use caution.

Campbell is one of five Elba Work Release Center inmates who escaped this week.

Mark Wilson and and Jerry Alan Walker escaped July 31. Walker was back in custody by Aug. 1 and Wilson was recaptured the following Monday.

Two inmates are still at large.

Deandre Antonio Tompkins, 38, escaped Saturday at around 9:50 a.m. He was serving a 25-year sentence for third-degree robbery in Jefferson County and was not due for release until 2030.

Dennis James Calaway, Jr., 30, escaped from the center at around 1:30 p.m. Monday. He was serving a five-year sentence for a second-degree receiving stolen property conviction in Mobile County. He is now back in custody, according to the DOC.

Within an hour of Calaway’s escape, Campbell fled his assigned work release job in Troy. He is 5-foot-8 and weighs 178 pounds and was convicted in Baldwin County.

“Campbell was in for burglary. He had to be seen as a medium risk to be put on work release,” Powell said. “Now that he’s on the run, you’ve got to consider him as dangerous because you never know what he’ll do to keep from being caught.”

Anyone with information on the wherabouts of Campbell, Tompkins or Calaway is asked to call CCSO at 334-335-6568 or the ADOC Investigations and Intelligence Division at 334-353-8912.