INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Two murder suspects being held in the maximum security portion of the Indian River County Jail have escaped, the Sheriff’s Office said Monday morning.
The men were cellmates and were discovered missing shortly before 5 a.m. during a headcount. They are considered dangerous, Sheriff’s spokesman Jeff Luther said. It is not known if they are armed.
“It looks like they are off the grounds,” Luther said.
The escaped cellmates are Leviticus Uriah Taylor, 23, and Rondell Reed, 51.
Taylor was found guilty in September of murder in a case from 2009 where he and four others were accused of hitting a man in the head with a cinder block to rob him.
Reed is accused of shooting and killing the owner of Jim’s Auto on US 1 earlier this year. He previously spent 21 years in “super maximum custody” in Texas following an escape from a North Carolina prison and shoot-out with law enforcement.
How Taylor and Reed escaped was not immediately known, Luther said, though it appears as though they went through a vent and over either a 12-foot wall or fence.
Their red jail jumpsuits were found near a vent, according to Luther.
The Sheriff’s Office is searching for the men, but it is unknown in which direction they were headed.
Anyone with information about the escape or thinks they have seen either man is encouraged to call authorities, 9-1-1 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-8477.
The Sheriff’s Office is planning a press conference at 10 a.m.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
