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Susan Thornton booking photo
By MIKE WELLS
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Susan Thornton walked out of Orient Road Jail on Friday morning a fugitive.
The 33-year-old inmate left the jail before 11 a.m., less than six weeks before she was due to be released after serving time for a prostitution conviction, Hillsborough County sheriff’s spokesman J.D. Callaway said.
Thornton’s jail uniform was found in a stall in the women’s bathroom in the front lobby, Callaway said. She was a trusty and cleared for work details outside secure areas. She had been assigned to clean the lobby.
No one recognized her as a prisoner when she left the lobby, and it’s unclear whether surveillance cameras filmed her leaving the building, Callaway said. Detectives suspect an accomplice left clothes for her in the bathroom, but they don’t know whether someone was waiting outside to help her escape.
By 5 p.m., however, Thornton was on her way back to jail. Tampa police arrested her at 6304 N. Nebraska Ave.
She was captured less than 4 miles from where she was arrested May 29 on a prostitution charge.
She refused to give details about how she escaped, Callaway said.
She was being held without bail Friday night. She now will have to go before a judge on an escape charge.
Callaway said trusties typically are low-level offenders with no history of violence.
Reporter Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
Contact Mike Wells at (813) 657-4534 or .
that was a smart escape, but she’ll pay for it if and when she get caught.
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Posted by Dominick Alesandrini, Tampa on 06/10 at 08:32 AM
What an idiot! She traded six weeks for probably a year or more. And now her pimp (who probably orchestrated her escape) will find another crackhead to fill her spot on the street.