WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - An inmate who escaped from the Wakulla County Jail and crossed state lines is now back in Florida.
Joel Cooper was last booked in a Florida State prison in Raiford.
He was caught in Phoenix , Arizona at the beginning of March, nearly four months after escaping through the ceiling of a library in the jail with two others.
Daniel Cotterman is still in New Mexico, awaiting extradition.
Casey Martina remains in the Wakulla County Jail.
WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - The final two inmates out of the three that escaped the Wakulla County Jail in November have been caught.
Joel Cooper was caught leaving a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona and Donald Cotterman was arrested in a hotel room in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
We sat down with Wakulla Sheriff Jared Miller, who tells us how it felt to finally catch the criminals.
"It was a sigh of relief for me as the sheriff. I have been concerned ever since it happened, like I said, my number one problem is that I did not want them to hurt anyone," said Miller. "Worried about the safety of not only the people in Wakulla County, but throughout the United States or wherever we ended up getting them at."
The pair recently captured, will be extradited back to Wakulla soon.
The first inmate, captured in North Carolina one week after their escape, remains behind bars in Wakulla.
WAKULLA COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Two escaped inmates who have evaded capture for months have finally been taken into custody.
Sheriff Jared Miller says that the last of the inmates, Joel Teraill Cooper and Donald James Cotterman, were arrested in two different states.
The Wakulla County Sheriff's Office says that Cooper was arrested by the Phoenix Police Department as he was exiting a hotel room. He was booked into the Maricopa County Jail and WCSO was notified.
No information was publicly released about his capture to avoid alerting Cotterman. Cooper has waived extradition and will be returned to the Wakulla County Jail soon.
On Wednesday, Cotterman was found and arrested in a hotel room in Las Cruces, New Mexico, by the United States Marshals Service. He was subsequently booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Center.
Once the extradition process is resolved, Cotterman will be returned to the Wakulla County Jail.
Before their arrest, the two had been seen in North Carolina.
The third inmate, Casey Martina, was arrested in Rockwell, North Carolina back in November 2017 and remains incarcerated in the Wakulla County Jail.
At this point, no additional information is being provided as the investigation remains active with respect to events that happened following their escape. Once the case is fully closed, WCSO says they will provide an update to the public.
Cooper, Cotterman and Martina escaped from the jail through the ceiling of the jail's law library back in November 2017.
