The search continued Thursday for an inmate who was spotted at a Houston hospital hours after he was injured while escaping from a Southeast Texas prison 90 miles away.
David Puckett, 27, suffered cuts and wounds to his upper body while scaling a fence with razor wire during his escape from the Stiles Unit prison in Beaumont sometime after 7 p.m. Wednesday, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. At 10:45 p.m. Wednesday, Puckett walked into St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston's Texas Medical Center.
"As he was entering the hospital, he noticed law enforcement and he turned around and left," Clark said.
A review of hospital surveillance video confirmed it was Puckett.
Prison officers found blood and pieces of Puckett's white uniform near the fence, Clark said.
Officials said Puckett might be driving a white pick-up Chevy truck that was reported stolen in Beaumont. The truck, with Texas license plate number 27NKB6, also has a decal on the driver's side that says, "AGS Solutions."
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Clark said authorities are now searching for Puckett statewide.
Puckett, who was serving a 30-year prison sentence for aggravated assault of a police officer in the Southeast Texas county of Lavaca during a high speed chase, had been in the prison system since February 2002.
He is described as 5½-feet tall and weighing about 155 pounds with brown hair and eyes.
