Escapee captured, attorney relieved

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Columbia criminal defense lawyer Jack Swerling and his family spent nearly three days with 24-hour security as authorities searched for an escaped inmate who’d kidnapped the Swerlings years ago. Today, the family was relieved to hear that Jimmy Causey had been captured after slipping out of a prison for the second time.

“What’s particularly scary is they found him in a hotel room with a shotgun and semiautomatic pistol,” Swerling said. “I expected that he was going to be armed and dangerous because he was going to be desperate.”

Swerling added that authorities closed in on Causey while he was sleeping at a Texas motel, avoiding what could have been a violent confrontation. Causey also had four cellphones and nearly $50,000 in cash, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

Causey reportedly used a wire cutter that SC Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said was likely delivered via a drone. Stirling believes Causey used a cellphone to coordinate the escape. He left a dummy in his bed and cut through four fences to flee the maximum security Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville.

“He’s an extremely manipulative guy and nothing would surprise me if he got someone to help him,” Swerling said.

Officials say Causey made his escape on July 4 at about 8 p.m., but wasn’t discovered missing until about 2 p.m. the following day, when Swerling was alerted. He said he and his family were on vacation in South Carolina when he got the call that Causey was on the loose.

“Bryan Stirling … called me and set into motion a situation where there was going to be law enforcement protection by the different counties I was connected to, my office in Richland County and Horry County where I was,” he said. “So there was coordination among the sheriffs and we had 24-hour protection around us. We had a deputy assigned to us 24 hours a day. They pretty much went with us wherever we had to go.”

At one point, he said a deputy accompanied him to the grocery store.

“Look, nobody ever wants this to happen, but I certainly don’t hold the administration responsible,” Swerling added. “Between Director Stirling and (SC Law Enforcement Division) Chief Mark Keel, they’re going to find out who it was.”

Swerling defended Causey twice in the early 1990s, when he faced charges that included burglary, larceny and fleeing police, and was able to get his sentences reduced. But testimony during Causey’s kidnapping trial indicated that he was unhappy about having to serve any prison time, according to the Associated Press.

Swerling was having dinner with his family in 2002, when he said Causey entered through the back door of the home with a gun and an accomplice. They tied up the terrified Swerlings, then ransacked their home searching for cash.

Several years later, Causey was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and robbing the Swerlings when he escaped from the Broad River Correctional Institution by hiding in a dumpster that was hauled away. He was caught after three days on the lam.

He and an accomplice were busted at a motel after ordering a pizza. The delivery driver recognized the escapees and called police.

“I was always confident they would catch him,” Swerling said after Causey’s latest capture. “This guy has been known to make mistakes before. It was just a question of him making another mistake.”

Follow Phillip Bantz on Twitter @SCLWBantz