TEXARKANA, Texas–One of two men accused of escaping the Bowie County jail last week was arrested Monday in Austin while the daughter of the second fugitive has been arrested in Texarkana for allegedly aiding the get-away.
Wayde Burton Land, 39, was picked up in Austin on Monday, according to a statement Tuesday from the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office. He’s being held in the Travis County jail on charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle, failure to identify and escape.
J.C. Lee Kirby, 38, who reportedly walked out of the Bowie County jail in the early morning hours of July 7 along with Land, has not been found. However, his daughter, Makaylee Blackmon, 22, is in Bowie County custody on charges of hindering apprehension and possession of a controlled substance.
Shortly after the two men escaped the jail wearing street clothes, investigators with the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office interviewed Blackmon at her residence in Nash, Texas, according to a probable cause affidavit. Blackmon claimed to have had no contact with her father and said she knew nothing of his or Land’s whereabouts.
Knowing that Blackmon was friends with a Bowie County jail inmate, investigators discovered that Blackmon had visited the Bowie County jail in the days after the escape. Blackmon allegedly used “loose code” to tell the inmate she had seen her dad at someone’s home on the day of the escape and that the two had been “where old people walk with canes.”
The conversation led investigators to a house in Texarkana, Texas, and an abandoned nursing home. At the Texarkana house, a man told detectives that Land and Kirby had shown up at about 1:20 p.m. on the day of the escape and had been picked up by Blackmon.
Investigators were unable to locate Blackmon at her home for several days but made contact with her during a traffic stop on Friday. She was taken into custody on the hindering apprehension warrant and two counts of possession of a controlled substance for narcotics allegedly found in her possession. Blackmon allegedly provided Kirby with clothing and a car, according to the affidavit.
She is currently being held in the Bowie County jail with bonds totaling $125,000.
Land’s arrest on Monday is his second for escape in Bowie County in the last two years. In March 2022, Land and a different inmate, Michael Olson, 30, managed to break out of the Bowie County jail annex.
The two men had broken through cinder block, climbed into a pipe chase and knocked a hole through concrete on the back wall to exit the jail from the second floor. Once outside, the men were able to maneuver through the perimeter fencing and concertina wire before fleeing the jail property, according to a statement from Bowie County Sheriff Jeff Neal at the time.
Land was arrested for escape in Texarkana, Ark., while Olson was shot and killed when he grappled with a Texarkana Ark. Police Dept. officer trying to take him into custody.
This year, Land and Kirby allegedly escaped from the lockup on the fourth floor of the Bi-State Justice Center while clad in street clothes. Land is expected to face the charges of unauthorized use of a vehicle and failure to identify in Travis County before he is transferred back to Bowie County to face his escape charges from earlier this month and last year.
Kirby was being held on a drug charge at the time of the escape.
Anyone with information about Kirby’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Crimestoppers, which has offered a $2,000 reward, at 903-793-STOP.
