Murder suspect back in Sumter County custody after escape during jail riot Thursday night
Murder suspect Stephen Stinnette is back in custody in Sumter County, according to Adrienne Sarvis, public information officer for the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. "I do not have details of his apprehension at this time," said Sarvis early Friday morning. "I will send an official news release later today with more information."
Sumter County Sheriff’s Office began its search on Thursday for Stinnette, who escaped from the Sheriff’s Office Detention Center during a riot.
According to Sarvis, an inmate at the detention center set fire to his mattress Thursday night. To protect inmates from smoke inhalation, they were being removed from their cells when they became combative. Stinnette used the opportunity to escape.
Two detention officers sustained minor injuries during the incident but are doing fine at this time, said Sarvis. Inmates' injuries were not available.
Stinnette was one of four arrested May 4, 2018, after Jerry Lamars Johnson, 31, of Pioneer Drive in Sumter, was found dead in Lake Marion in April 2018. Sumter County Sheriff's Office said the man was shot multiple times in a wooded area of Sumter County and that his body was buried twice in Sumter County, then moved to Lake Marion. Sheriff Anthony Dennis said to get to that location in Orangeburg County, “the killers would have had to transport his body through three counties.”
Dennis said last year that the body was suspected to have been moved because the suspects thought someone had revealed where Johnson was buried.
Three other suspects, including Stinnette's mother, were charged after Johnson was found.
Kimberly McFaddin McLeod, 36, of Bay Blossom Avenue in Sumter, Andrew Thomas Scurry, 36, of U.S. 15 South in Sumter, and Lisa Avins, 57, of Pinewood Road in Sumter were charged with accessory after the fact. Avins is Stinnette's mother.
Anthony Dustin Dill, 32, of Bell Road in Mayesville, was later arrested after he turned himself in, and he was accused of helping hide Johnson's body. He was charged with accessory after the fact of murder.
Stinnette was an acquaintance of Johnson. A fisherman found his body.
This story will be updated with more details as they are released.