IZARD COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — An inmate at a north Arkansas prison who escaped on Sunday afternoon was reportedly let out by a corrections officer, according to court documents.
Grant Hardin, 56, a former police chief in Gateway, who was sentenced to three decades in prison and another 50 years for rape and first-degree murder convictions, is now facing a second-degree escape charge.
A probable cause affidavit filed in Izard County Circuit Court on Tuesday said that on May 25, Hardin impersonated a corrections officer “in dress and manner, causing the corrections officer operating a secure gate to open the gate and allow Inmate Hardin to walk away from the North Central Unit.”
A warrant for Hardin’s arrest was also filed on Tuesday.
Hardin escaped the North Central Unit in Calico Rock around 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, according to a spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The spokesperson said Hardin escaped in an “ADC-type uniform.”
He was arrested in 2016 for the murder of James Appleton, a Gateway city water employee. Hardin was the police chief of Gateway and forced to resign before killing Appleton. His DNA was later connected to a 1997 rape case in Rogers.