A child sex offender is back behind bars one day after allegedly escaping Brazoria County Jail with the help of his mother.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) announced that Robert Yancy Jr., 39, was captured shortly after 8 a.m. on December 18 after being on the run since he slipped out of the Clemens Unit nearly a day earlier during visitation.
On December 17 at approximately 4 p.m., Yancy reportedly walked out of jail with his mother, Leonor Priestle, a former correctional officer at the McConnell Unit in Beeville, while wearing her sweater and flashing a false ID.
The authorities traced the duo from the start, with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office using the license plate of Priestle’s white 2021 Nissan Versa to locate them in Victoria County. Just after 6 p.m., local police arrested Priestle after spotting her car in the 100 block of Sam Houston Drive. She was arrested on charges of permitting/facilitating an escape, while her reported boyfriend, Russell Williams, was also later taken into custody on charges of criminal intent to escape.
Yancy was located early the next day, thanks to two citizens alerting the authorities of a sighting at FM 521 River Park in Bay City. He was arrested by Matagorda County officials. He had been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of the sexual abuse of a 7-year-old girl for three years in Victoria County in 2022.
Yancy will be rebooked on felony escape charges, according to the TDCJ. However, he will not return to the Clemens Unit, which had another inmate escape briefly from a trusty camp nearby in October.
As previously covered in The Dallas Express, two North Texas inmates were on the lam for several days after escaping from Fannin County jail in late November. One had been initially charged with aggravated assault of a child, while the other faced charges of evading arrest with a motor vehicle, drug possession, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. They were arrested and rebooked without incident.
In North Texas, the efforts of the Dallas Police Department to fight crime have been dampened by an ongoing officer shortage. Although a City analysis advised a staffing level of approximately 4,000 officers, just about 3,200 currently fill DPD’s ranks.
The effects of this deficit of sworn-in staff can be seen in Downtown Dallas, which continues to see high concentrations of criminality, as covered in The Dallas Express. Compared to neighboring Fort Worth, where the downtown area is patrolled by a special neighborhood police unit that works alongside private security guards, Downtown Dallas sees roughly four times more assaults and incidents of motor vehicle theft.