Mississippi inmate who was months away from prison release gets 40 years for escaping

Shunekndrick Huffman, 21, was just a few months away from completing a 7-year prison sentence when he escaped from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility last year. On Monday, Rankin County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced the captured inmate was handed a 40-year sentence in connection with his escape, CBS News reported.

Huffman was convicted after he pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping. The 21-year-old was serving a 7-year sentence for aggravated assault when he broke out of prison in August 2022. Authorities said Huffman’s release date for that conviction prior to his escape was December 2022.

Following his escape, investigators said the inmate held three people hostage and at gunpoint for hours after forcing his way into a home, per WJTV. Huffman is said to have subsequently stolen a car belonging to one of the victims before damaging it and fleeing to the Mississippi State Hospital campus.

He later hid in a trash can that was situated at a home on the campus. But authorities eventually found him and arrested him. In the wake of the incident, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told WLBT-TV that the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility’s siren system would be upgraded to curb prison breaks. 

In related news, a wanted rapist and murderer who faked his death before escaping a South African prison, was arrested in Tanzania in April after being on the run for a year. According to BBC, it was initially thought that Thabo Bester passed away in his prison cell after setting himself on fire. 

Authorities ultimately launched a manhunt for the prison escapee after a new post-mortem established the deceased person was not Bester. The captured man, who is also known as the “Facebook rapist”, was convicted in 2012 after he was found guilty of raping and killing his girlfriend. He was also accused of raping and robbing two other women the year prior.

Bester was being held at the Mangaung Correctional Centre in Bloemfontein when he was supposedly found dead in his cell. Authorities have, however, launched a new murder investigation after it was established the dead person was not Bester. That individual’s cause of death was ruled as blunt-force trauma to the head.