August escapee moved back to Cass County with 1.1 M bail

Sheriff’s Office arrests woman Monday who was at large for allegedly aiding in the felon’s escape.

The felon who fled the Linden jail with a homemade knife in August and injured a guard has been returned to Cass County Custody; A female accused of aiding him was arrested Monday evening, According to Sheriff Larry Rowe, with CCSO.

Forty-four-year-old Charles Obin Spraberry returned to Cass County Jail on Fri, Sept. 23, Rowe announced Friday–one week after Spraberry was returned from Caddo Correctional Center in Shreveport, where he’d been held since his August 30 arrest near Mooringsport, Louisiana by parish deputies.

The felon fled from the jail on Aug 29 around midnight, after allegedly attacking a male guard with a knife made from the metal top of a mop handle, according to earlier reports.

After the guard was wounded, Spraberry forced a female guard to open a door to the outside, where Spraberry fled into a wooded area near the jail.

The jailer reportedly had to receive three stitches from a facial wound allegedly received during the attack.

A CCSO administrator said the jailer is doing well. “He never missed any work other than to go get stitches for his lip,” she said.

Caddo Parish deputies said they were able to cuff Spraberry by working in conjunction with tips from CCSO that helped pinpoint Spraberry’s whereabouts, which Rowe said at first focused their attention on Texas State Highway 8, between Linden and Red Hill areas.

Rowe said CCSO was tipped off about Midnight the Tuesday after the escape when a Cadillac SUV was stolen from a currently unoccupied home in the aforementioned area.

“We told Caddo Parish to look out for the SUV and Spraberry,” Rowe said. Caddo deputies were able to locate the SUV, along with Spraberry near Mooringsport, where the SUV’s technology was used to disable the vehicle, stopping the Cadillac and Spraberry in their tracks.

Shea Smith, 37, was a passenger in the stolen SUV recovered when Spraberry was apprehended. Caddo deputies arrested her on a charge of possession of stolen property but she was later released from the Louisiana jail on bail.

Smith was arrested Monday for her alleged part in helping Spraberry flee, Rowe said. Deputies had been looking for her for the past couple of days but didn’t believe she’d gotten far from her Cass County home Rowe said Saturday he believed she was still in “our neck of the woods” due to tips CCSO had received.

“We apprehended Shea Smith,” Rowe announced Monday afternoon Smith’s formal charges weren’t available at press time but she is alleged to have possibly helped Spraberry in his escape.

Spraberry’s charges include first-degree felony escape, first-degree burglary of a habitation, unauthorized use of a vehicle, theft of a firearm and assault on a public servant, with a bail tallied at $1.1 Million.

Previous reports indicate Spraberry is a person of interest in two deaths in Cass County, where a man and a woman’s charred remains were found along with a camper trailer that had also been burned out on March 13. Rowe said previously that the couple was originally so badly burned that their genders and ages were impossible to determine until their remains were sent to a Texas crime lab. The couple’s remains were found near Bivins off County Road 4667.

Several days after the remains were discovered, Spraberry was arrested by Beauregard Parish deputies on unrelated charges before being extradited to Cass County.

NOTE: Spraberry has not been charged in the two March deaths but is listed as a person of interest.