A convicted drug dealer is back in custody after escaping from a Mississippi courthouse on Monday.
The DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Stephen Russell, Jr., 27, was out on bond when he arrived for his plea and sentencing hearing. After pleading guilty to trafficking fentanyl and being handed a decade-long prison sentence, sheriff’s deputies were escorting Russell out of the DeSoto County Courthouse. That’s when he faked a medical emergency before fleeing on foot and getting into his parked car.
While Russell managed to drive off, even though he was still in handcuffs and a belly chain, he did not make it too far as deputies arrested him within a mile of the courthouse in Hernando.
District Attorney Matthew Barton issued a statement after the incident, noting his office is already in the process of pursuing additional charges against Russell.
“Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that this individual managed to escape custody following today’s conviction and sentencing for killer drugs,” Barton said. “Our office is actively pursuing additional charges from his actions that put others in danger, which could result in additional years to his existing sentence.”
Russell’s initial plea and sentencing stemmed from a case in which he sold fentanyl to a confidential informant. As a result, a search warrant was executed in November 2020 on the Horn Lake hotel room Russell was staying in with 144 fentanyl pills, a scale, a handgun, and marijuana being discovered.
Russell marks the fourth escape in DeSoto County this calendar year. Two trustees, Gene Dewayne Saulsberry and Moumen Rafat Mawlawi, escaped during a work project lunchbreak in January but were captured in the weeks following. Murder suspect Joshua Zimmerman was on the run for over two months before being captured in Chicago in June.
