Judge denies bond for Omarion Owens on new escape charge, moves his trial up to Dec. 7
TEXARKANA, Texas — Judge John Tidwell of the 202nd District Court on Thursday denied bond for Omarion Lamon Owens on a new escape charge and revoked his bonds in all of his other cases, hours after officers found him hiding at an apartment complex following his escape from CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System. Owens is now held without bond on every charge against him.
Owens, 22, appeared Thursday morning on the new charge, the second escape case filed against him since he was jailed in August 2025. Tidwell also moved his trial up to Monday, Dec. 7.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the court Owens had been outside the custody of the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office for several hours Wednesday night before he was caught. Tidwell denied bond on the escape charge, citing public safety.
At the state’s request, Tidwell also revoked Owens’ bonds in all of his other pending cases, including the June escape charge and the deadly weapon charge.
Attorney Jacob Potter, who already represents Owens in his earlier cases, was appointed to the new escape case as well. His brother, attorney Josh Potter, stood in for him at Thursday’s hearing.
The trial had been set for January 2027.
Crisp told TXKtoday the state has not yet chosen which of Owens’ cases will go to trial first. She said that if other trials are also set that week, the state will elect to try Owens first.
Escape from the hospital
Owens escaped about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday after he was taken from the jail to CHRISTUS St. Michael for treatment of what the sheriff’s office described as an alleged hand injury he suffered while incarcerated.
According to a sheriff’s office news release, Owens had told family members where he was, and they arrived at the hospital. A jailer allowed him to have contact with them, which the sheriff’s office said violated its policy. Owens then removed his restraints while using the restroom and ran from the hospital on foot.
He shed his orange jail clothing and was spotted several times wearing only boxer shorts, the sheriff’s office said. Officers from at least eight agencies set up a perimeter around the St. Michael Drive area, and K9 teams and a drone searched the woods along Cowhorn and Swampoodle creeks overnight.
Owens was found about 2 a.m. Thursday on a second-floor stairway landing at the back of the Creekside North Apartments in the 2600 block of Kennedy Lane, according to the release and jail records. He was arrested without incident and returned to the Bowie County Jail.
The sheriff’s office said its investigation into how Owens planned the escape and whether anyone helped him is continuing.
A growing list of charges
Owens is accused of shooting into a Texarkana home in March 2025, wounding a woman and her 10-year-old daughter. He has been in the Bowie County jail since Aug. 14, 2025.
As of early Thursday, the jail roster listed 15 offenses against him, including the new escape charge:
- Theft of a firearm
- Aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury (two counts)
- Aggravated robbery (two counts)
- Injury to a child, elderly or disabled individual causing serious bodily injury
- Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (two counts)
- Escape (June 2026)
- Bond surrender (three counts)
- Assault causing bodily injury, a misdemeanor
- Deadly weapon in a penal institution
- Escape (Thursday’s arrest)
He faces up to life in prison if convicted of aggravated robbery.
In June, he was one of several Bowie County inmates charged with escape after they allegedly used strips of blanket fabric to defeat the locks on their cell doors.
Earlier this month, he was charged with having a deadly weapon in a penal institution after jailers who saw a photo he allegedly posted from his cell searched it and found a cell phone hidden under a mop bucket and a shank made from about 5 1/2 inches of sharpened metal wire.