By Russell Hood
The Webster Progress-Times
An escaped state inmate is back in custody after encountering a local pistol-packing preacher and being apprehended with the help of a county employee.
Eugene Lavon Robinson, 37, fled the George-Greene County Regional Correctional Facility in Lucedale about 7 p.m. Feb. 3 after tying up an officer and stealing the officer’s 2000 GMC Sonoma truck, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
He had been in prison since 2003, serving 30 years for armed robbery in Choctaw County and residential burglary in Oktibbeha County. A $2,500 reward was being offered for his capture.
Robinson showed up at the Rev. Waymon Betts’ house at 4610 MS Hwy. 9 between Eupora and Walthall the morning of Feb. 7, according to Webster County Sheriff Tim Mitchell. He said Robinson, then on foot, knocked on the door and asked to come in out of the cold.
Betts, 72, is pastor of Philadelphia Baptist Church in Cadaretta and a bus driver for the Webster County Schools. He and Mitchell provided this account of the events that followed:
Betts and his wife, who was also at home, were not aware Robinson was an escapee but did refuse to let him inside. Betts told him he would take him to town and pocketed his .380-caliber automatic pistol, for which he has a concealed-carry permit.
En route on Highway 9, Betts told his passenger he was taking him to the police station or sheriff’s office. Robinson then pulled a lock-blade knife on Betts, stuck it in his side and ordered him to get out near North Lake Circle.
Betts slammed on the brakes, rolled the window down and began screaming at an oncoming truck to call the law. Betts got out the door and Robinson got behind the wheel of the Ford Ranger.
Betts backed away, pulled his gun and began firing. Of the six rounds fired, four bullets struck the pickup, with two entering the quarter glass window on the driver’s side. One shot struck Robinson in the back, according to Mitchell, but he was able to drive off.
Webster 911 received a call at 8 a.m. from Betts reporting the carjacking, with the Webster County Sheriff’s Department, Eupora Police Department and Mississippi Highway Patrol responding.
Subsequently, according to Mitchell, a Webster County employee who recognized the vehicle “got behind (Robinson) and kept us notified of his location.” The employee, who is not a law enforcement officer, asked not to be identified in this article.
Robinson drove to Mathiston and turned south onto Highway 15 toward Ackerman. After seeing some work trucks with their lights on, he turned around in a driveway and headed back toward Mathiston, said Mitchell. The Mathiston Police Department and Choctaw County Sheriff’s Department had been notified in the meantime.
“We got him on the bridges south of Mathiston (in Choctaw County),” Mitchell said. “He gave up no problem.” Officers from the Mathiston PD, Webster and Choctaw County sheriff’s departments were involved in Robinson’s apprehension, Mitchell said.
Robinson was taken to OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville, treated for a superficial wound and released. He was then transported to Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, according to MDOC.
Chief Investigator Landon Griffin of the Webster County Sheriff’s Department said the Sonoma truck stolen from the correctional officer in Lucedale was found Thursday on Bywy Road in Choctaw County.
Griffin confirmed that, in addition to his prison ID, a list was found on Robinson when captured that read: “1st: Find new vehicle. 2nd: Place to lay low. 3rd: Get food. 4: Get money.”
Robinson is facing an escape charge and other charges are pending, MDOC said in a news release.
Bank robbery
The Choctaw County conviction of Robinson and accomplice Lamar Gladney, then 16, was for the armed robbery of M&F Bank (now Renasant Bank) in Ackerman on Dec. 5, 2002. Both were of Ackerman, according to news reports at the time.
They fled in a car stolen earlier from a Sturgis family and were captured on Louisville-Sturgis Road after a high-speed chase, The Choctaw Plaindealer reported afterwards.
Authorities recovered about $16,000 taken in the bank robbery and two shotguns believed to have been used to rob the bank. The weapons had been stolen from Springer Pawn & Gun in Eupora a few weeks earlier, the newspaper reported. Robinson was also charged with commercial burglary of Springer’s, according to the article, but Webster County Circuit Court records show no subsequent indictment for that crime.
Gladney received the same prison term as Robinson and has since received an additional three-year sentence for possession of a controlled substance within a correctional facility, MDOC records show.
