WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Mall beating suspect returned to custody following escape

Mall beating suspect returned to custody following escape

HARTSVILLE, Tenn. - An inmate who escaped custody Monday while he was being transferred from the Sumner County jail is back behind bars.

Police said Robert Tice managed to escape out of the back of a locked van along Highway 25 in Hartsville, Trousdale County.

Sumner County Sheriff Bob Barker told News 2 the van had made a stop in Wilson County and was on its way to Macon County, when it approached slow traffic on Highway 25.
 
He says Tice was sitting in the back row of the van, with legs shackled and hands cuffed, but somehow Tice managed to get free, open the back door and make a run for it.

"We've had this van for over ten years and haven't had any of these problems. We are going to look at the mechanics of the van and make sure the door mechanisms are properly adjusted so that this won't happen again," Sheriff Barker said.

Tice was recaptured just after 10 a.m. Tuesday, in a wooded area not far from where he escaped.

Tice, 21, is one of four people charged with brutally beating a man in a parking lot outside the Mall at Green Hills in March.

He, along with 18-year-old Catherine Mills, 18-year-old Johnathan Harris and 19-year-old Brittney Bannister are charged with especially aggravated robbery in the attack that left 62-year-old Robert DeMoss, Jr. critically injured.

Authorities said Tice will be charged with escape in Trousdale County.

• March 11, 2009: 4th person charged in Green Hills beating
• March 5, 2009: 3 suspects jailed in brutal Green Hills attack
• March 4, 2009: Man assaulted in Green Hills parking garage