The Register-Herald (Beckley, West Va.)
NALLEN, W.Va. (AP) -- Police were searching Saturday morning for a prisoner who they say overpowered a Pocahontas County transportation driver and allegedly stole a pickup truck and guns.
Joseph Eugene Howard, 42, formerly of Georgia, escaped Friday while being taken to the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, State Police in Summersville said.
“He used an aerosol can and threatened to burn him,” said Sgt. Travis Foreman with the State Police in Marlinton.
Howard allegedly left the transportation driver -- who was not identified -- handcuffed to the passenger side door of the transport vehicle, stole a pickup truck from a residence in Nallen on the Nicholas-Fayette county line and stole three guns from a home at Clifftop in Fayette County, police said.
“He is armed,” Nicholas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Wayne Plummer said.
The transportation officer was unharmed, police said.
Howard had been sentenced earlier Friday to life in prison in Pocahontas County Circuit Court for being a habitual offender. Howard had been convicted of grand larceny and burglary charges in Pocahontas County, Georgia and Virginia, Pocahontas County Prosecutor Walt Weiford said.
“He had been tried back in July of last year (in Pocahontas County) for burglary and grand larceny. Following his conviction in July, I filed an information charging him as a habitual criminal, or a recidivist,” Weiford said.
Weiford said a jury last month found Howard to be a recidivist.
Howard was described as being white, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes and wearing green coveralls. He was believed to be driving a 1996 purple Ford Ranger extended-cab pickup truck with West Virginia registration: “9GJ 988,” a bike rack and a “Mystery Hole” bumper sticker.
Anyone with information on Howard’s whereabouts or the vehicle is asked to call the West Virginia State Police in Summersville at (304) 872-0800 or Nicholas County dispatchers at (304) 872-7814.