A city jail prisoner who used Sprigg Street construction as an avenue for escape Thursday afternoon was free about three and a half hours before turning himself in around dinnertime, police said.

Jonathan McCaig of Cape Girardeau was on the second day of a sentence for probation violation for driving on a suspended license when he jumped from a van transporting him and other prisoners back from a work-release job.

They were headed back from working at the Cape Girardeau Recycling Center and traveling northbound on Sprigg Street back toward the police department and city jail when the van paused because of some roadwork near Walnut Street, said Lt. Barry Hovis.

Cape Girardeau Police officer David Valentine removes a jail shirt found near a house at 716 S. Ellis St. which was discarded by an escaped work detail inmate Thursday afternoon. (Fred Lynch)

Construction workers saw McCaig jump out and run between the houses toward Pacific Street.

Police began a search for McCaig, going immediately to a residence he kept on South Pacific Street. They recovered an orange jail shirt he'd shed in the backyard of a house at 716 S. Ellis St.

A warrant for escaping custody was issued for McCaig's arrest.

McCaig turned himself in between 5 and 6 p.m. Thursday, said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Selzer.

Shortly after McCaig escaped, city authorities were alerted by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department that a probation-violation warrant had been issued for him.

He was convicted of domestic assault in Cape Girardeau County in 2008 and was still on probation for that crime.

According to a probable-cause statement by Cape Girardeau officer David Templeton, McCaig tried to choke his then-girlfriend July 28 at the same residence on South Pacific Street that police suspected he was hiding Thursday.

While he fought with the victim, McCaig's pit bull mix, Brooke, bit the woman on the back of her leg, according to court documents.

Another ex-girlfriend sought an order for protection against McCaig in 2004, alleging he threatened to kill her and tried to choke her, causing severe bruising that required a trip to the emergency room. The order was dropped when neither party showed up for court.

Typically, the police department receives documents from the court notifying them of prisoners considered eligible for work release, Hovis said. A check is done to ensure the person does not have any outstanding warrants, he said.

Since Jan. 1, 2007, there have been seven escapes or attempted flights from custody in Cape Girardeau city limits, but one was a Missouri Department of Corrections inmate who was being treated at an area hospital, Hovis said.

Of the others, all were later apprehended or turned themselves in, and several were juveniles residing at the juvenile detention center, Hovis said.

One two occasions, prisoners managed to escape the city jail but were caught before they actually made it out of the building, he said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent addresses:

716 S. Ellis St.

712 S. Pacific St.