Ex-jailer in Mississippi is charged in escape of inmate who had standoff with Chicago police
HERNANDO, Madam. — A former Mississippi prison employee has been arrested and charged in connection with the June escape of Joshua Zimmerman, an inmate who fled to Chicago and was arrested there last week after a 15-hour standoff with police in a restaurant a stone’s throw from the Democratic National Convention.
Ronnie Hunt was charged with transporting articles useful in the escape of an inmate, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Bailey Martin said Tuesday. Martin said “additional charges are likely.” She did not respond to a question about whether Hunt was represented by an attorney.
The DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department reported that Hunt, 32, has been fired from his job as a deputy jailer, WREG-TV reported. He was being held about an hour’s drive away in the Lafayette County, Mississippi, jail.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Zimmerman escaped June 14 from the DeSoto County courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi, where he was being held on attempted murder and armed robbery charges. He was also awaiting extradition to Houston, where he has been charged with murder, the Marshals Service said.
Investigators said last week they believe Zimmerman worked at the seafood restaurant where he was captured. The restaurant is about a half-mile from the United Center, where the political convention was being held. The Marshals Service said there was “no connection or threat to the event or attendees.”
Zimmerman was wearing street clothes, not prison jumpsuits, when he escaped in Mississippi. A screenshot of courthouse security video showed him wearing khaki pants and a white shirt, and no handcuffs.
According to court documents in Harris County, Texas, Zimmerman is accused of fatally shooting a woman, Keyanna Mercer, at a Houston motel on Sept. 2, 2023. The two were asked to leave the motel after multiple complaints of fighting. When staff members checked the room to see if they had left, they found Mercer’s body with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Court records also show that Zimmerman was arrested in Connecticut in 2022 on sexual abuse charges. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $200,000 bail, but a warrant was later issued for his rearrest.
DeSoto County Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle II told WREG-TV after Zimmerman’s escape: “The idea that he had help is false. The idea that he had an extra set of clothes is false. This is a career criminal. He knew what he was doing.”