A North Carolina man that escaped the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Virginia, on April 30 pleaded guilty Wednesday.

Bruce Callahan, 44, originally at the jail awaiting trial on federal weapon and drug distribution charges, concocted a plan with fellow inmate Alder Marin-Sotelo to escape. The pair manipulated locks and were then able to scale fences to escape.

Marin-Sotelo was originally incarcerated after pleading guilty to owning a gun as an illegal immigrant and awaiting trial for the murder of a Wake County, North Carolina, sheriff’s deputy.

Marin-Sotelo is accused of leaving the jail in a getaway car purportedly provided by his sister at 1:18 a.m. He would go on to be captured in a city near Mexico’s Pacific coast on May 4.

Callahan would go on to leave the jail over 20 hours later, at 11:30 p.m. Jail staff did not notice either man missing until May 1.

Callahan, on the other hand, stayed out of law enforcement hands slightly longer but also got less far. Callahan was weakened and in need of medical assistance by the time of his recapture, having subsisted on nearby river water after leaving the jail. 

On May 8, Callahan approached a student on the Longwood University campus, about three miles from Piedmont Regional Jail. A fire alarm was pulled, and law enforcement arrived to reincarcerate Callahan.

Callahan faces up to five years in prison for his escape.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.