Both escaped inmates caught

Convicted killer taken to hospital after capture

COLUMBIA — A convicted killer was caught in a river Wednesday, one day after using two ladders — one homemade, the other taken from a prison warehouse — to scale razor-wire fences and escape from a maximum-security prison, officials said.

Forrest Kelly Samples, 36, escaped from the Broad River Correctional Institution about 7 p.m. Tuesday with convicted burglar Andrew Lagrand Storey, 27, the state Corrections Department said. Storey was captured just hours after the escape in the nearby Broad River.

Samples eluded police for more than 24 hours, but he got no further than Storey, said Richland County sheriff's Lt. Chris Cowan.

Authorities pulled Samples out of the water close to where Storey was captured. It was unclear where he went during the day or whether a sighting of him getting out of the river near an Interstate 20 overpass was legitimate, Cowan said.

Authorities had used helicopters, bloodhounds, boats and undercover agents to search for Samples and contain his movement.

Samples was taken to a local hospital for treatment. "He was very cut up and in very poor physical condition," Cowan said.

Officials had expected that, based on the amount of blood found on the prison fence and ground.

A cut on Samples' arm will require surgery. He was expected to stay overnight at the hospital, said Corrections Department spokesman Josh Gelinas. Samples may have to go to the infirmary at Kirkland Correctional Institution, also in Columbia, before returning to the Broad River prison, he said.

Both Samples and Storey will be charged with escape and will be in lockdown, Gelinas said.

The inmates, who worked in a wood finishing program, crafted a makeshift ladder from flooring planks and duct tape, the prison agency said. After topping a 12-foot high fence, the pair used a commercial-grade ladder to climb over a second fence of the same height, the agency said. Both fences were topped with razor wire.

Samples was serving life in prison for killing a Laurens motel owner in 1996. Samples pleaded guilty to murdering, kidnapping and robbing Robert Holmes, 59.

Samples has a criminal record dating back to 1988 that includes convictions for criminal domestic violence and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. He also was convicted in 1992 for escaping from a detention center by going over a wall.

Storey, 27, was serving a 25-year sentence for a first-degree burglary conviction. He has been returned to the prison.