CHICKASAW CO., Miss. - Earlier this week Chickasaw County authorities arrested 26 year old Michael Ellis for the first time.

"He was all over the road and so we just ended up stopping him," Chickasaw County Sheriff Jimmy Simmons explains. "We put him under arrest and found out he was wanted for murder."

Wanted for murder in Illinois.

Ellis was held in Chickasaw County where he awaited extradition. He was housed in a lock down cell, just outside the jail's guard tower.

At 9:30 Tuesday night (Nov. 3), he made a break for it.

"Somehow or another he got that little thin piece of metal out that goes behind the toilet and the lavatory, climes up into the attic, climbed down through the attic, into the evidence room, breaks into the evidence room, steals five pistols, and some clothing and goes out the north end, goes across these woods, across the field to the pipe plant and steals a pick up truck," Simmons recalls.

With the help of K9 Units and law enforcement from surrounding counties, Ellis was captured less than two hours after his escape.

"He headed straight south on 15 and one of the Oktibbeha County deputies spotted him," Simmons says.

Now, with Ellis back in custody and no longer posing a threat, officials can focus on what went wrong and making sure it doesn't happen again.

"When I came in I sent every jailer I had home," Simmons says. "And brought another crew in, because you know when a person's standing across and you've got people working they should have checked on it and they didn't."

While human error may be partially to blame Sheriff Simmons says the majority of the problem lies in the facility.

"Really when it comes down to it, it was a default in workmanship of the jail."

With money tight for now Chickasaw County authorities will have to rely on temporary fixes.

"I'm going to weld a steal plate over that, where he cannot unscrew it," Simmons explains.

But they hope to see big changes come in the future.

"If the board will stay with me, I know it's going to cost a little money but it's kind of like everything else, you need to have it, audio and video all of it," Simmons says.

Illinois authorities were in Houston early Wednesday morning (Nov. 4). They have since taken Michael Ellis back to that state.