Darrin Bookout (from left), Sadie Rowe and Melissa Murray
An inmate at the Baxter County Detention Center faces new charges after he stole drugs from the medicine cart at the facility.
Darrin Ryan Bookout faces felony charges of third-degree escape, obtaining a controlled substance by fraudulent practices, breaking or entering and possession of a controlled substance, as well as misdemeanor impairing the operation of a vital public facility.
The incident with the 32-year-old Mountain Home man occurred early Sunday morning after he complained of chest pains and blood pressure issues.
Authorities removed Bookout from his cell, checked his blood pressure and seated him at the booking bench of the jail for observation. Bookout allegedly began asking for his prescribed suboxone strip, but was told it was not time for his medication to be administered. Suboxone is a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
While Bookout was being monitored, two female inmates in the jail caused a disturbance. Inmate Sadie Rowe allegedly ran for a door after being found crying in her cell about “wanting to go home.” Female inmate Melissa Murray then approached the jailer, with Rowe bolting for a door. Rowe entered the 309 room at the jail – the unit where prisoners from the Arkansas Department of Correction on work detail are housed – and was located hiding under the bed of an inmate.
Murray also fled from jail personnel into the “changeout” room, where she was found nude.
While the other inmates were being detained, Bookout allegedly left the booking area, went into housing unit and entered the med cart. Bookout returned to the booking area and when asked what he was doing, said “I went to get this” and displayed a suboxone strip. Jailers moved to retrieve the suboxone from Bookout, who began to struggle and attempted to eat the medication.
Officers retrieved some of the medicine, but one jailer was bitten so severely they were later checked out at the hospital and given a tetanus shot. A 309 inmate helped get Bookout in cuffs and he was returned to the booking area. Jailers found Bookout was still chewing on the strip and were finally able to remove it from his mouth and place it in to evidence.
A check of the med cart found five suboxone strips were missing. When authorities announced they would conduct a strip search on Bookout, the inmate revealed the missing medicine was in his pocket, where it was retrieved and returned to the med cart.
Electronic booking records from the detention center show Rowe and Murray now face third-degree escape charges, as well as impairing the operation of a vital public facility.
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