Published: July 22, 2008 10:51 am         

Escaped prisoner caught riding bike on interstate

HUNTSVILLE — An inmate who fled from his from his job as groundskeeper outside a Huntsville-area prison was recaptured about five hours later Monday night, riding a stolen bicycle along an interstate highway.

Convicted burglar and robber Michael McCumber, 55, was apprehended without incident about 10 p.m. along the shoulder of Interstate 45 in Madison County, about 15 miles north of where he was reported missing from the Wynne Unit prison, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said.

McCumber was picked up by Madison County sheriff's deputies. At some point, he had ditched his white prison uniform for different clothes.

"He was wearing a black shirt and khaki pants," Lyons said.

McCumber was to appear before a magistrate in Madison County to face charges of felony escape, then be returned to prison, she said.

He'd been noticed missing late Monday afternoon when officers went to pick him up at the end of his work shift at the employee housing area of the prison on the north side of Huntsville.

McCumber had several convictions as long ago as 1987 from Bexar County, but Lyons said a good disciplinary record and his parole eligibility for next June made him a candidate for the trustee job.

Tracking dogs had been working in the area as night fell, trying to find his trail. The prison is just east and within sight of I-45, the main highway between Houston and Dallas.

At least one residence on the prison grounds in the area where he was working had a window broken out and McCumber was believed responsible, Lyons said. It was not immediately certain what he may have taken from the place, she said.

McCumber was imprisoned first in October 1987 with a 35-year sentence for robbery in Bexar County and was paroled five years later in September 1992. He picked up a burglary conviction the following year, also in Bexar County, and was returned to prison in July 1993.

McCumber was paroled in October 2003, then returned with a parole revocation last October. He also has two 17-year sentences for burglary and possession of a firearm by a felon, both out of Limestone County.

Last September, two convicts escaped from a work detail at the Wynne Unit, leading to the death of a corrections officer.

In that case, Jerry Martin, 38, and John Ray Falk, 41, are awaiting trial on capital murder charges and could face the death penalty for the death of corrections officer Susan Canfield.

Canfield, 59, died of injuries when the inmates, who were not trustees, broke away from their work detail, stole a truck and rammed into the officer while she was on horseback. Both prisoners were apprehended within hours.