Jail details convicted killer's escape

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - A metal towel hook was the key to convicted murderer Jonathan Good's escape from the Mecosta County Jail, a report from the jail concluded.

24 Hour News 8 got a look Thursday inside the cell where he was staying.

Empty screw holes mark where the towel hook sat until Good escaped in November. He was awaiting trial on attempted murder and dozens of other felony charges when he broke out. Good had served prison time for a 1980s murder.

"He had used a toenail clippers to slowly unscrew the screws that were in here," Sheriff's Capt. Kevin Wood, the jail administrator, told 24 Hour News 8. "His stack of papers that were sitting here on the table helped shield the view of staff members being able to see that."

Investigators concluded Good took that hook and then brought it into what's called the inmate walk area -- an area two maximum security inmates typically share. He then made a ladder of sorts for himself leading to a skylight in the area.

Good stepped on a chair, then a door lock, then a phone and finally a ledge to get up to the 3x3 foot skylight.

"He used the towel hook to pry away the metal grate," Wood said.

Good knew his escape plan would work.

But he waited.

Two days later he was back at it. He tried to use the hook to pry away the skylight. That didn't work and Good got angry. He punched the skylight.

"And it punched right out very easily," the jail administrator said. It punched out easily because it wasn't made of the right material. We'll get back to that.

But again, Good waited.

And one day later, Good punched through the second layer of the skylight and made it to the roof. He was spotted but he got away.

After four days of searching, the escaped inmate was picked up in Wayne County.

"Very shocking," Wood said. "I would have never expected anybody getting out of this area at all."

But now that sometime did, changes are coming. New more secure towel hooks and phones that are flush with the wall are planned. The space above the ledge that the last step in Jonathan Good's makeshift ladder will be filled in.

And the skylights will be changing too.

"If it was the proper skylight, obviously he would never have gotten out," Wood said.

It was supposed to be made of bulletproof security glass. Fiberglass was installed instead. Investigators are still looking into it but say it was a construction failure.

For now?

"What's going to happen with that hole, it's going to get filled in with cement," the jail administrator explained. "And there's going to be a 10-inch tubular hole."

One that a person couldn't fit through.

The Mecosta County board approved Thursday night the funding needed to make that happen.