A man is back in custody after officials say he walked out of the Harris County Courthouse, and then he allegedly tried to carjack a woman.
HOUSTON — A 35-year-old escaped inmate is back behind bars after a 12-hour manhunt after he escaped custody while at the Harris County Courthouse in downtown Houston Thursday.
Nigel Thomas Sanders, 35, was captured after that manhunt that led to the closure of downtown streets and a lockdown at UH-Downtown. He was arrested at 3 a.m. Friday in the Cloverleaf area of east Harris County.
“Estamos pensando en la parte donde la parte donde no estaba esposado fue donde se pudo escapar y salir de la corte,” Harris County Sheriff’s Office Major Saul Suarez said early Friday morning.
The sheriff’s office said they believe he was in an area where he wasn’t handcuffed.
According to court documents, Sanders escaped from the tunnels used to transfer inmates from the jail on Franklin Street to the courthouse for hearings and back.
Dozens of inmates are typically transferred at the same time but the exits are secured, according to HCSO.
A deputy watching surveillance cameras said he saw an inmate in a jail uniform and black hoodie leaving through an unsecured door in a separate area. The jail immediately went into lockdown mode. A headcount using barcodes on bracelets determined it was Sanders who had escaped.
The deputy who noticed the inmate leave began searching for a breach. He found a hole in a ceiling on the secure side of the tunnels. HCSO said Sanders climbed through the hole and crawled through the ceiling to the unsecured side on his way back from court. The deputy followed the path and found orange slippers and other clothing left behind by the escapee.
Sanders then exited the building to a parking area.
Investigators said an administrative assistant with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office saw Sanders trying to enter several vehicles. She told investigators that he then climbed into her unlocked vehicle, threatened her with a knife, and told her, “Get the [expletive] out of the car or I will, I’ll do it.
According to court documents, she grabbed his hand that was holding the knife and during a struggle, she crashed into three parked vehicles.
The woman jumped out and ran away. She flagged down two deputies but when they found her vehicle, Sanders was gone. They discovered the knife he used nearby, according to court documents.
When Termite Watkins saw Sanders had escaped the courthouse, he could not believe his eyes.
“You can run but you can’t hide,” Watkins, the founder of Fighter Nation, said.
Sanders was in court for this burglary of a building at a church’s gym.
“We help all kinds of people. Young kids, troubled kids. Kids that are not troubled,” Watkins said.
Watkins is the founder of the gym called Fighter Nation. He said two burglars caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. In a video, a person who looks like Sanders is seen looking right at the camera during the burglary.
“Very unfortunate when they stole from us,” Watkins said. “It hurt the kids.”
Now that Sanders is back in custody, Watkins said he forgives him.
“I am hoping I can go visit them tomorrow. Maybe (there’s) a way we can possibly help them,” he said.
However, he said he had not forgotten what had happened and that he knew Sanders would now have to face the law.
Sanders will be in court again on Monday. That is when his preliminary court hearing will take place for the additional charges of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and escape while arrested.
