![]() He blasted stat budget cuts that landed Richards on a minimum-security prison, rather than a high-security lockup. Richards is a large man, standing six-foot-four and weighing 230 pounds. Walker County District Attorney Bill Adair, who prosecuted Richards, said he is worried for his staff and the family of Richards' victim, told the Daily Mountain Eagle. However, state no longer operates a farm at the facility. Richards was being housed at the State Cattle Ranch, which is a farm run by the Department of Corrections and once raised cows to feed to inmates across the state. 'We’ve been checking local addresses that would be familiar to him - the homes of family members and places he’s been associated with in the past,' he said. In Richards' home town, Sheriff Mark Tirey told the Jasper Daily Mountain Eagle newspaper that his deputies were on 'high alert' searching for the convict. Prison officials tracked Richards' scent with dogs, though the trail eventually ran out, according to Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett.Ĭorbett would not comment on how Richards escaped. US Marshals and local police have fanned out across central Alabama where Richards, 42, disappeared but have been unable to find any trace of him yet. He was found missing from his bunk during an inmate headcount taken at 1.30am.Īt least one local official, who fears for the safety of his staff and the victim's family, says a minimum-security prison is no place for a convicted murderer to be held. It's unknown why Timothy Richards slipped out of State Cattle Ranch, a prison in Greensboro, early Sunday. Under the terms of his plea agreement Richards received a life sentence in prison, but would have been eligible for parole in May 2013 - just 13 months away. She is one of just four women awaiting execution in Alabama. Thanks, in part, to Richards cooperation, Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death. 'I don't think Tim would have ever spent a day in jail if he hadn't met Shonda,' Walker County sheriff's detective Joey Vick told the AP. Richards avoided the death penalty by testifying against his wife, providing investigators information about the plot. ![]() Richards pleaded guilty in 2000 to murdering Randy McCullar, one of his wife's two other husbands, as he changed a tire in the parking lot of a church in the small city of Jasper. Walker County sheriff's detective Joey Vick, on Timothy Richards' murder conviction 'I don't think Tim would have ever spent a day in jail if he hadn't met Shonda' ![]()
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