Inmate Taken Out to Watch Fireworks Flees

An accused killer taken out of jail to watch Independence Day fireworks demonstrated why taking inmates out of jail to watch fireworks shows may not be the brightest idea. Jason McClurg broke free after a deputy took him and nine other inmates out of Missouri's Shannon County jail and he spent the weekend on the run before he was recaptured last night, KY3 reports. When McClurg took off, "one of the inmates told me he wasn't running real fast," the local sheriff says. "But he went around the court house and the other inmates thought he went off the steps."

The deputy who decided to take the inmates out by himself at night was fired after the escape—the second one to have happened on his watch. "I really didn't even want them out here," the sheriff says. "He wasn't supposed to have them out here at that hour." McClurg, 35, is accused of murdering his wife by mixing prescription drugs into her Kool-Aid and convincing her to drink it by saying their 2-year-old child had made it for her, reports the New York Daily News. (More Missouri stories.)