Mother, son charged in Carroll Co. inmate escape

McKENZIE, Tenn. — A man and his mother leave together from a college campus, but the son was an inmate and authorities believe the mother helped him make an escape.

Investigators believe 77-year-old Mae Floyd drove her son, 45-year-old Charles Bright, away from guards Monday afternoon while he was on work detail at Bethel University.

“We think that he did gain access to a cell phone and used that cell phone to contact his mother to pick him up,” Public Information Officer for the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department Becky Keith said.

That is when the sheriff’s department started scanning through corn fields near the Carroll and Henry County line, and five hours later found Bright lying in one of them.

He has been charged with escape.

Floyd was later arrested at her home and has been charged with permitting or facilitating an escape.

Those who live nearby said it is troubling an inmate got away so easily.

“If we’re going to have someone like the prisoners working like on a work crew or something like that, they’ve got to be guarded well enough,” Rudy Hamby, who lives near where Bright was found, told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News on Tuesday. “Let people know what’s going on and don’t let them get out of sight.”

Authorities said Bright was in jail for violating his probation on evading and driving charges, counts that are not considered violent.

“It can open itself up to problems,” Keith said. “We try to maintain that the citizens of the county and cities are safe, but these are inmates.”

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Department said an investigation is currently underway into how Bright was able to get a cell phone.

McKenzie police and a Henry County K-9 unit assisted in the search.