Sheriff says murder suspect masterminded fire, riot, escape from Sumter County jail

After an eight-hour manhunt overnight Thursday, Sumter County Sheriff’s Office deputies captured murder suspect Stephen Stinnette about 4 a.m. Friday about one mile from the sheriff’s office detention center from which he had escaped.
Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis provided details during a press conference to the media Friday on what his preliminary investigation described as a planned escape masterminded by the 32-year-old Stinnette.
After an inmate set fire to his mattress in his cell just after 7 p.m. Thursday within the jail’s high-security pod, the pod’s 60 inmates had to be evacuated from their cells into the open bay area. Then, about 30 inmates initiated a planned fight with correctional officers, allowing the opportunity for Stinnette and two other inmates to get outside into a fenced-in recreational area, Dennis said.
With the assistance of several deputies who were already on hand at the jail for an arrest booking, the riot was stopped after a matter of minutes with minor injuries to a couple detention officers. It was never deemed a hostage situation, Dennis said.
Stinnette used his shirt to climb over the exterior barbed-wire fence, sustaining several surface wounds in the process, Dennis said. He then ran into a wooded area near the jail.
Officers caught the two other inmates as they were also trying to escape — one was at the top of the 10-foot fence, the other at the base of the fence.
“The series of events from the fire in the cell, and the inmates knew there would then be an evacuation. Shortly after the evacuation began, then the altercation started with our detention officer. We felt that was a distraction for these particular inmates to escape," Dennis said. 
The entire incident from the start of the fire to detaining the two inmates lasted 30-45 minutes, he said.
Stinnette has been charged with escape, Dennis said, and the sheriff’s office is interrogating the other two men. On Friday morning, Stinnette was transported to another correctional facility in the state and will not return to Sumter.
A Sumter resident, Stinnette was one of four arrested on May 4, 2018, after Jerry Lamars Johnson, 31, of Pioneer Drive in Sumter, was found dead in Lake Marion in April 2018. The sheriff’s office said Johnson was shot multiple times in a wooded area of Sumter County and that his body was buried twice in the county before being transported to Lake Marion in Orangeburg County. Last year, Dennis said the suspects moved the body because they thought someone had revealed where Johnson was buried.
On Friday, Dennis described that 2018 incident “as one of the most horrific crimes that we’ve had in Sumter.” Stinnette is facing a murder charge in connection to the case.
Dennis said Stinnette is the first inmate to escape from within the confines of the detention center facility since it opened at 1250 Winkles Road in 2002. Other escapes were from work-release situations.
The sheriff also said also he thinks this incident may have been planned for about a month.
“With Stinnette’s history and our preliminary investigation, I do believe he was the mastermind,” Dennis said.

Overnight manhunt
Deputies secured a perimeter within a two-mile radius of the jail where they thought Stinnette was hiding after he escaped, Dennis said.
The sheriff’s office alerted area residents via 911 services of an escapee who was considered extremely dangerous, and the sheriff's office distributed a news release on the escape to the media about 8:40 p.m. Thursday.
The manhunt included just more than 30 deputies, Dennis said, and a total of 50 to 60 officers when including those assisting from the Sumter Police Department, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the State Law Enforcement Division and others. Two K-9 units and a SLED helicopter unit were called to help in the search. Dennis said he reached out to every available resource he knew of.
Authorities think Stinnette may have taken refuge in a vacant home near the jail until he didn’t hear the helicopter and K-9 units. He then exited the home, Dennis said, and made it about half a mile before being spotted by a sheriff’s deputy about 4 a.m. Friday.
Stinnette was taken into custody without incident, handcuffed and brought back to the jail, Dennis said.

In addition to the superficial injuries he received from climbing over the barbed wire fence, it appeared Stinnette had been bitten by a snake in the woods.

Now what?
Dennis said Friday the investigation into how everything happened is ongoing.
He said he felt staffing at the jail was appropriate at the time and that there was even extra staff on hand at the time with the extra deputies conducting a booking.
He said he was obviously concerned throughout the night and remains concerned.
“We are looking into what actually occurred out here, as far as the escape and preventing it from happening again,” Dennis said. “It does concern me that we have someone the caliber of a Stephen Stinnette to be at large in our community.”
An assessment by the sheriff’s office and state-level officials will be conducted.
“Whatever we need to do to correct what happened will be done,” Dennis said. “Whether that’s increased staffing or other protective measures.”