Arkansas

Arkansas town on edge after 'Devil in the Ozarks,' a former police chief and convicted killer, escapes prison

Published

11 months ago

May 27, 2025

Arkansas town on edge after 'Devil in the Ozarks,' a former police chief and convicted killer, escapes prison

A small Arkansas town is on edge after a former police chief convicted of fatally shooting a man and sexually assaulting an elementary school teacher escaped from prison Sunday wearing a “makeshift” law enforcement uniform.

Residents of Garfield expressed fear and anger as the search for Grant Hardin entered its third day.

“This whole weekend, I’ve kept the house locked,” Brenda Fields, 60, said in a phone interview Tuesday. “He was in law enforcement, so he’s not just your average person. That makes me more nervous because he had that background.”

Rex Littrell lives up the street from Hardin’s parents in Garfield, a town of about 600 people in northwest Arkansas, about 40 miles northeast of Fayetteville and not far from the Missouri border. He said that because of the nature of the crimes, Hardin should have been under careful watch.

“He should never have had a chance to escape. He’s killed somebody and he’s raped somebody,” he said.

Ex-police chief escapes Arkansas prison in disguise, serving decades for first-degree murder and rape — Escaped Arkansas inmate Grant Hardin. Arkansas Department of Corrections

Fields, who lives across the street from Hardin’s parents, said she learned about his escape on Facebook.

“My dad lives right next to us, too, and he’s locked all of his stuff up, locked up the outbuildings,” she added, saying she’s “scared.” “I wish they’d hurry up and find him.”

Hardin, the former police chief in the neighboring town of Gateway, has been on the run since Sunday afternoon after he escaped from the North Central Unit in Calico Rock, which is about 140 miles east of Garfield. He was convicted of killing Gateway City water employee James Appleton in 2017 and raping teacher Amy Harrison in 1997 — cases featured in the Max documentary “Devil in the Ozarks.”

He was Gateway’s police chief for about four months in early 2016. He also held jobs as an officer, a county constable and a corrections officer, NBC affiliate KNWA of Fayetteville reported.

The Stone County Sheriff’s Office said he escaped through a sally port, a controlled entry or exit area at the facility. He was wearing a “makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement,” officials have said.

A photo released by the sheriff’s office showed Hardin dressed in all black, appearing to push a wheeled cart with wooden pallets on it.

Grant Hardin escaped from the Calico Rock North Central Unit wearing a uniform.Stone County, Arkansas, Sheriff’s Office

Law enforcement agencies from across the state have joined the search. He remained at large Tuesday afternoon, and the state Corrections Department had no new updates.

The Izard County Sheriff’s Office warned residents to keep their doors locked and stay inside, county officials said.

The lack of information about Hardin’s whereabouts is frustrating for Cheryl Tillman, the mayor of Gateway and sister of Appleton.

“It brings back a lot of memories of when it first happened,” she said. “I can’t believe this has happened. I mean, what were they doing down at the prison that this happened?”

Tillman said law enforcement has not reached out to her family about Hardin’s escape. She learned the news Sunday from an automated phone call from a jail messaging system.

“All it said was that Grant Hardin had escaped from prison,” she recalled. “Nobody’s been in contact with us. … I find it pretty sad that authorities have not reached out to us.”

She said people in the community “are a little scared.” Tillman has taken extra precautions by having someone with her when she goes to work.

“You just have to stay vigilant and watch your surroundings,” she said. “That’s what I do.”

Hardin was serving a 30-year sentence for Appleton’s murder and a 50-year sentence for the sexual assault of Harrison when he escaped.

Appleton was talking to his brother-in-law when he was shot in his car Feb. 23, 2017, according to an affidavit filed in the case. The following year, a DNA sample linked him to the cold case rape of Harrison at Frank Tillery Elementary School. Hardin pleaded guilty in both cases.

Harrison declined to comment Tuesday.

Fields said Appleton was always a “really nice guy.”

“He used to come to our house once a month to read the water meter,” she said.

Littrell said there was “no reason for James to have died.”

“There was no reason for what happened to James to have happened. It was just bloody murder,” he said, calling Appleton a “good guy.”

Tillman said that the family has struggled to move on over the years and that Hardin’s escape adds to their pain.

“I wouldn’t say the first couple of years were easy. They were pretty hard,” she said. “Then you try and go on, and things subsided, and then ‘wham,’ all this comes back up again. It’s very hard.”

Source link

Arkansas

Effort to cut former Arkansas corrections secretary’s position as adviser to governor fails – Arkansas Times

Published

1 hour ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Effort to cut former Arkansas corrections secretary’s position as adviser to governor fails – Arkansas Times

A legislative panel rejected a proposal Tuesday that would have eliminated former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri’s job as an adviser to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

A top lawmaker also suggested that Profiri may return to his job overseeing the state prison system, two years after he was fired by the state Board of Corrections as part of a dispute with Sanders.

The proposal rejected by the Joint Budget Committee’s personnel subcommittee would have written into the appropriation for Sanders’ office language eliminating Profiri’s position from the Republican governor’s staff. Subcommittee members voted 9-6 against the amendment, with Rep. Lane Jean not casting a vote.

Republican Sen. Terry Rice introduced the proposal last week, a little over six months after Profiri didn’t appear at a hearing on the now-stalled Franklin County prison project before a committee that Rice co-chairs.

Rice called this a “major trust-breaker.”

“The Board of Corrections members asked Mr. Profiri to share his intended plans as secretary, and they would work with him. He ignored multiple attempts,” Rice said. “I was told during that meeting, he was in the Capitol, had been seen in the hall at the same time. He didn’t even reply and chose to snub legislators’ questions.”

Profiri was fired by the Arkansas Board of Corrections as the leader of the state’s prison agency in 2024, following months of increasing tensions between the constitutionally-independent board and Sanders over opening new beds when the Department of Corrections already struggled to find sufficient staffing. Those tensions eventually resulted in lawsuits, which are still unresolved, and Profiri’s firing.

After he was fired, the Republican governor hired Profiri as a senior advisor, making him the highest paid staffer in her office. Profiri is paid $183,699.98 a year, according to the Arkansas transparency portal.

Jean, a Republican from Magnolia who co-chairs the Joint Budget Committee, asked Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson and Board of Corrections member Lee Watson “what the timeline was” for Sanders to rehire Profiri as corrections secretary, pointing to the new makeup of the board.

“I don’t think there’s any objection to the board, or certainly a majority of the board, to hire him (again). What are we waiting on?” Jean asked.

“What I can say is Secretary (Lindsay) Wallace, she is the secretary, and she will continue as secretary until the governor decides she’s not secretary,” Hudson said. “In the interim, (Profiri) continues to do his job as an adviser to the governor.”

The ongoing lawsuit between the Board of Corrections and Sanders centers on who has the authority to fire the corrections secretary. A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge ruled last year that the board does. Sanders appealed the ruling.

The board’s new Sanders-appointed majority voted to accept a settlement agreement accepting her position that she is the one with firing authority earlier this month, though the lower court order remains in force until the Arkansas Supreme Court rules on the matter.

Sam Dubke, Sanders’ spokesperson, referred the Advocate to Hudson’s remarks when asked for comment on whether Profiri would be rehired as corrections secretary.

Source link

Arkansas

TST Images: Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, in Tulsa

Published

14 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

TST Images: Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, in Tulsa

TULSA, Okla –The Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, on April 19, 2026 at ONEOK Field and The Sporting Tribune’s Robert Sloter was there to capture the following TST Images.

Luke Fox #15 of the Tulsa Drillers throws a pitch during a game against the Arkansas Travelers at ONEOK Field on April 19, 2026 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.