6 Escape Tennessee Prison; 2 Recaptured

Six inmates, including three convicted killers, escaped from a maximum security prison Sunday after handcuffing their guards to a chair and stashing them in a laundry room, officials said. Two of them were recaptured 18 hours later.

Two of the prisoners, at least one armed with a homemade knife, had been allowed out of their cells to distribute meals for Ramadan at Riverbend prison, along the Cumberland River.

The inmates overpowered two guards and released the others, corrections spokesman Pam Hobbins said. They took the guards’ radios and jackets and scaled a 12-foot fence surrounding the prison, she said.

“There was a trail of blood, which gave evidence that some of them had been cut on the razor wire on the fence,” Hobbins said.

Officials were alerted when the guards were late in reporting a scheduled head count. “They promised not to hurt [the guards] and they didn’t,” Hobbins said.

State and local police set up checkpoints, and helicopters were searching for the escapees. They were dressed in bluejeans and blue prison shirts with white T-shirts.

The prison, built in 1989, is one of several in the mostly industrial, wooded area close to several residential neighborhoods.

The only successful escape from the prison was in October 1995, when four inmates rode out in a hidden compartment in a truck but were later recaptured.

Gov. Don Sundquist warned motorists not to pick up strangers and offered a $5,000 reward per escapee for information leading to their capture and conviction.

The escaped inmates were identified as: Billy Jackson Coffelt, 44, sentenced to life for being a habitual criminal; Aaron Tyrone James, 24, sentenced to 50 years for second-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery; William Kirk Riley, 33, sentenced to life for first-degree murder; Jay Roy Denton, 32, serving seven years for burglary and escape; Michael Wayne Perry, 26, charged with first-degree murder, being held pending trial; Lyle Thomas Van Ulzen, 33, serving 65 years for second-degree murder and arson.

Perry and Riley were the two recaptured.