An inmate from the Tipton Correctional Facility who escaped while on work detail at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia on Sunday, August 18, and was apprehended on Monday, August 19, has been formally charged with a felony.
According to a release from the Pettis County Sheriff’s Department, at approximately 11 p.m. on Monday, August 19, deputies- with assistance from troopers with the Missouri State Highway Patrol- responded to the 3300 block of Route B, just outside of Sedalia, for a 9-1-1 report of a male subject with unknown injuries. He later was identified as 34-year-old Shannon Dewayne Watts.
Upon arrival, deputies and troopers found Watts with two other subjects- who, according to a probable-cause statement, told authorities they had received a call from another male subject- whom they wouldn’t identify- to pick up Watts in the area of Wisdom and Dove Roads in rural Green Ridge, which established Watts left the fairgrounds, therefore escaping from custody. Watts was transported to University Hospital in Columbia for medical attention, where he remains in custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Online court documents say Watts has been charged with a Class B Felony for Escape or Attempted Escape from the Department of Corrections. The court has ordered no bond.
Watts’ initial hearing is pending at Pettis County Circuit Court.