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Show Escapee caught By PAUL CHALLIS FARMINGTON A Davis County Coun-ty Jail inmate facing arraignment proceedings at Circuit Court escaped Thursday afternoon and led law enforcement agencies on a high speed chase before he crashed a stolen vehicle in Clearfield and was captured in a nearby warehouse. Mark Woodland, 20, from Las Vegas, Nev., escaped from custody of Davis County Sheriff Bailiff Milt Sessions when he took one handcuff hand-cuff off the prisoner so he could sign a document, according to Davis County Sheriff Department's Chief Deputy K.D. Simpson. Woodland was in the courtroom for arraignment on two charges of auto theft in Woods Cross when the incident occurred. "When the bailiff turned his head for an instant, Woodland bolted for the door and escaped from custody. He jumped from a fire escape in the building and fled on foot," Simpson said. After Woodland left the courthouse, court-house, he went into a nearby laundromat laun-dromat and allegedly assaulted the manager when she refused to give him her car keys. He took her keys and left the scene in her automobile. Utah Highway Patrol officials spotted Woodland driving the vehicle vehi-cle owned by Adele Buckway of Ogden near Clearfield. "A high speed chase then took place until Woodland lost control of the vehicle vehi-cle near the Freeport Center and crashed," Simpson said. Woodland was injured in the one-car accident but still fled on foot from the scene and found refuge ref-uge for a while in a nearby warehouse. Davis County Sheriff deputies and Utah Highway Patrol troopers at the scene finally recaptured recap-tured Woodland moments later without a struggle. "He was taken to the Humana Hospital and treated for minor injuries in-juries and then released," Simpson said. 4 'He was back in jail Thursday night and now faces numerous other charges." Simpson said this was the first escape from the courthouse in 20 years. "We have had prisoners escape from the jail and from en route to the courthouse, but this was the first time an inmate had escaped from a courtroom in several years." According to Simpson, the bauirt had four inmates from the jail in his custody in the courthouse on SEE JAIL P2 Jail CONT. FROM PG.A-1 Thursday because of manpower shortages. "Sometimes it's hard to keep control of inmates in the courtrooms cour-trooms as judges usually require that the handcuffs and other restraints re-straints be removed during court proceedings. It's sometimes hard to control the circumstances," he said. "Only one of Woodland's hands had been loosened from the cuffs, and the other had remained attached to his chest." Woodland now faces more charges besides the original counts of auto theft, including aggravated assault and robbery, escape from custody, leaving the scene of an accident, avoiding arrest, several traffic violations and another count of auto theft, plus other miscellaneous felony charges. "He will be kept busy for a while," Simpson said. 4 |