A man who authorities said switched identities with another inmate to escape from the Clark County Jail in May was caught today in Illinois.
Michael Diontae Johnson, 30, was apprehended by the United States Marshals Service following a multiagency investigation that included detectives from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, the sheriff’s office said. An official with the Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro, Ill., said that Johnson was booked at the southern Illinois facility.
Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins said he was “extremely grateful to the federal and local law enforcement officers, both here and in Illinois, who worked so hard to locate and apprehend Johnson.”
Johnson escaped the jail on May 12, when he swapped identities with inmate LaQuon Carson Boggs, 19, of Portland, who was scheduled to be released, according to court records. Johnson donned Boggs’ clothes, signed Boggs’ name on paperwork and recited Boggs’ birth date before walking out of the jail before 8:30 that morning, court records say. Jail staff realized something was amiss by about 12:45 p.m. during a lunch hour headcount.
Johnson was serving a 24-year sentence for kidnapping and aggravated assault in Arizona. He was in Clark County to stand trial in a separate domestic violence case when he escaped.
