MADISON COUNTY, Texas - A Galveston County Jail escapee has been captured, according to police.
According to the Madison County Sheriff's Office, Dominic Potter is now in custody after a several-day search. Potter escaped from jail on December 12.
Police say Potter was found in Madisonville after spending several days hiding in the woods in the area.
Potter will be returned to Galveston County. Authorities say 38-year-old Potter had been held in the Galveston County Jail since early November.
The sheriff said during a traffic stop, officers discovered Potter had two theft warrants out of Tarrant County, and when they searched his car, they found materials to forge money. He was booked for a forgery of government document on a $50,000 bond.
The Galveston County Sheriff is looking into why the jail’s sally port truck gate was open Monday night, allowing Potter to escape.
“The gate was open, he saw his chance, and he took it,” said Sheriff Henry Trochesset, who said the last escape in Galveston like this he can recall happened in the mid-1980s at a different facility.
A crime of opportunity, the sheriff believes, shortly after Potter’s supervising deputy had walked out the back door of the kitchen to take out the trash and noticed that open gate.
