Deputy jailer arrested in connection to Joshua Zimmerman’s escape

DESOTO COUNTY, Miss. — A DeSoto County deputy jailer was arrested in connection to the escape of inmate Joshua Zimmerman, from the county courthouse in Hernando earlier this year.

Ronnie Hunt, 32, was arrested and charged with “escape of prisoners and conveying articles useful for the escape of prisoners.” The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation says “additional charges are probable.”

According to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office, Hunt has been fired from his job with the sheriff’s office. He is currently being held at the Lafayette County Jail.

On June 14, Zimmerman escaped from the county courthouse where he was scheduled for a hearing in a case where he was facing an attempted murder charge. He made it past the courtroom, down the stairs, past the metal detectors and guards at the front entrance without being noticed.

He is accused of attacking an elderly Southaven man. He is also facing a murder charge in Houston, Texas in connection to a woman’s death.

The extent of Hunt’s alleged involvement in Zimmerman’s escape is unclear.

But from what WREG knows now, the initial speculation from the Sheriff about the escape appears to be completely wrong.

This is what Sheriff Thomas E. Tuggle II told WREG following the escape:

“The notion that he had help, that’s false. The notion that he had an extra set of clothes, that’s false. This is a career criminal. He knew what he was doing.”

Zimmerman was taken into custody in Chicago after an hours-long standoff with U.S. Marshals on August 21.

After Zimmerman was apprehended, the DCSO said that the gaps in how he escaped would be filled.

But people WREG spoke with said Hunt’s arrest doesn’t come as a complete surprise.

That’s because they believed it was an inside job.

“It had to be somebody inside because how would he be able to get away,” Hernando resident Inge Rose said. “They keep them shackled when they take them from courtroom to courtroom.”

The Sheriff’s Office is now directing all questions to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is leading the inquiry into Zimmerman’s disappearance.

The DeSoto County District Attorney’s Office initially had a lot to say about the escape but a judge has since told them not to make any further public comments.

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