Man who escaped Lynchburg jail is arrested in Georgia

After nearly a month of dodging the law across the Southeast, the Pittsylvania County man who escaped from jail in Lynchburg is back behind bars.

Larry Dodson Jr., 20, was arrested near Savannah, Ga., on Sunday night after crashing a stolen truck during a high-speed chase, according to the Georgia State Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Ron Donelson said the chase started about 4 p.m. Dodson crashed the truck and ran away into a swamp, Donelson said.

He was later found by local police and the state patrol hiding in a utility shed near a cell phone tower.

"They didn't find out he was wanted until after they had already got him," said Georgia State Patrol dispatcher R. McCormick.

"When we finally got an ID, it came back that he was a fugitive out of Virginia."

Donelson said he expects Dodson to be extradited to Virginia after his case is handled in Georgia.

It is unclear how long that will take, but when Dodson returns to Lynchburg, he will face new felony escape charges, including a federal charge, Donelson said.

Dodson's trail, beginning in Lynchburg with a rope made of tied-together bed sheets, crossed into eastern North Carolina, Louisiana and ended in coastal Georgia.

He escaped March 10 from the Clay Street Lynchburg Adult Detention Center -- a first for the facility -- climbing down 100 feet from an outdoor recreational area.

The escape was not Dodson's first.

After slipping away once before from authorities in Pittsylvania, he had been transferred to the Lynchburg jail while awaiting transfer to a state Department of Corrections facility to serve more than seven years.

Court records in Pittsylvania and Roanoke show he has convictions for car theft, burglary, grand larceny of a firearm, felonious escape, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a weapon by an inmate and property destruction.

Chris Dumond is a staff writer for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.