UPDATED: McDonald County escapees caught in Noel
Jul. 27—PINEVILLE, Mo. — Three inmates, including a murder case defendant, have been taken into custody in Noel, McDonald County Sheriff Robert Evenson announced late Monday night. No one was injured in the course of their recapture.
Murder case defendant Shun'tavion L. Thomas, 23, of Noel, and two men jailed on assault charges — Carmelo M. Burgos, 27, of Springfield, Illinois, and David Molina Sr., 49, of Southwest City — broke out of the jail Saturday evening by attacking a jailer and taking her keys. The jailer sustained minor injuries.
A law enforcement dog tracked them to an edge of Big Sugar Creek in Pineville before losing their trail.
Deputies spent Sunday and Monday checking out addresses associated with the escapees and running down a couple of tips as to their whereabouts before finally locating them Monday night in Noel.
All three are now facing additional felony counts of escape and assault of a corrections officer.
Thomas waived a preliminary hearing in April on counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Nov. 22 shooting death of Jonathan Arrellanos, 23, at an apartment complex in Noel.
Burgos, who has been jailed the longest of the three, is accused of assaulting another inmate, Ricky Couch, on July 4, 2020, by hitting him over the head with a wooden chair and pummeling him with his fists as both were visiting with family members by phone in a visitation area of the jail.
Molina was being held on an array of charges, the most serious of which concern an assault of an Anderson police officer on March 7. Molina purportedly fired a shotgun at Steve Hollis when the officer tried to stop a vehicle in which Molina was a passenger. An initial discharging of the weapon struck the windshield of the officer's patrol car, injuring Hollis. Molina got back in the vehicle before getting out and shooting at Hollis a second time, according to a probable-cause affidavit.
