COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- School shooter T.J. Lane and two other inmates made a brief escape from prison using a homemade ladder, Ohio officials said Friday.
A report by the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections detailed the escape from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Facility, a minimum-medium security prison in Lima. Lane, who was given three life sentences for killing three students at Chardon High School in 2012, Lindsey Bruce, a child molester, and Clifford Opperud, convicted of kidnapping and robbery, were recaptured nine hours after they escaped.
The three are now being held in the Ohio State Penitentiary.
DRC spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the three spent several months making a 13-foot ladder from old cabinets. On Sept. 11, they used it to get to the roof of the administration building and then jumped to the ground outside the prison.
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The report, a summary of two investigations, said a guard notified his superiors in June that he had found old wooden cabinets in a crawl space. Nothing was done to follow up.
Prison officials and police responded quickly to the escape, the report said.
"After being apprehended, one of the escapees attributed the rapid law enforcement response and quick establishment of a secure perimeter as the reason he was unable to move any further," the report said.
Since the escape, the deputy warden has been demoted and the warden reassigned, officials said. Steps have also been taken to block the escape route, including installing razor wire on the administration building roof.
Lane will not be charged with escape, officials said. At his 2013 sentencing for the Chardon shootings, he wore a T-shirt that said "Killer" and made obscene gestures to the parents of his victims.
