Texas inmate serving life in prison for sexual abuse of minor recaptured by authorities

AUSTIN, Texas — A convicted sex offender who escaped Sunday from a prison near Houston was captured Monday morning, authorities said.

Robert Dean Yancy Jr., 39, escaped from his cell at the Texas Department of Corrections' Clemens Unit in Brazoria, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. The man fled in a white Nissan Versa with his mother in the car, according to social media posts from the Brazoria County authorities.

Yancy was captured and arrested shortly after 8 a.m. Monday by authorities in Matagorda Country, which is adjacent to Brazoria County on the Gulf of Mexico. Law enforcement officers found Yancy when his license plate was spotted about 110 miles west of Brazoria County, CNN reported.

He is now being charged with felony escape, authorities said. He is being held on a $5 million bond.

Police arrested two other people in connection with his escape. They arrested Yancy's mother, Leonor Priestle, and charged her with permitting and facilitating an escape and also charged Russell Williams, Priestle's boyfriend, with criminal intent to escape, Fox 26 Houston reported.

Yancy was serving a life sentence without parole for the continuous sexual abuse of a child in Victoria County, which is about two hours southeast of San Antonio.

The prison from which Yancy escaped is in Brazoria County, which is just south of Houston and up against the Gulf of Mexico. Its population was just over 372,000 people at the time of the 2020 census.

The Clemens Unit encompasses security levels one through four, which range from allowing prisoners to reside outside security fences to housing prisoners in cells and permitting them to work inside the prison under armed supervision, according to PrisonsInfo.com. It's unclear which security level Yancy was under.