A convicted violent sex offender who slipped away from the Jasper County Detention Center in early June was nabbed in northern Florida over the weekend, ending a weekslong manhunt for the inmate as state police still search for another escapee.

Port Royal resident Jaquan Duvall Barnes, 29, was in police custody as of Monday morning, according to the Hardeeville Police Department. He was booked in the Jacksonville jail at 6:50 p.m. Sunday following his arrest for a seatbelt violation, resisting arrest and giving a false name to sheriff’s deputies.

Barnes escaped from the Ridgeland facility around June 10, prompting a manhunt that was quickly taken over by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. He had been held at the jail since his arrest for sex trafficking of a minor in early March, when Hardeeville police reportedly pulled over his vehicle to find an underage girl who was “acquainted with the suspect” and had been reported missing from Beaufort County.

The circumstances of Barnes’ capture and a timeline for his extradition to Jasper County were unclear as of Monday morning.

For years, the Jasper County Detention Center has struggled with understaffing and noncompliance with state regulations. A County Council agenda item from March 2024 lists a number of violations discovered during a routine inspection by the South Carolina Department of Corrections, including inmate overcrowding, “inadequate” staff coverage at posts throughout the building and “inoperable” intercom stations with missing parts and exposed wires.

The detention center was short about 20 employees as of July 5, according to reporting from Bluffton Today. Located at 12008 North Jacob Smart Blvd. in Ridgeland, the building is home to both the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office and the county detention center.

Less than three weeks after Barnes’ escape, another Jasper County inmate — 23-year-old Jashaun Heyward — escaped police custody while being escorted out of the county courthouse following a bond revocation hearing. SLED was assisting in the search for the fugitive, who appeared in court for assault and firearms charges.

At the time of his escape June 28, Heyward was in the custody of deputies from the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, who had taken over the transportation of inmates to the courthouse due to a lack of personnel at the detention center.

Long history of sex crimes, violence

In 2015, Barnes pleaded guilty in Beaufort County court to two counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, an offense for the possession of child sexual abuse material, more commonly known as child pornography.

And in Fulton County, GA, Barnes had previously been charged with pimping a minor and trafficking a person for sexual servitude. Both counts stem from a May 2018 incident in Sandy Springs, a city north of Atlanta: While “conducting surveillance” for a prostitution investigation in the area, police reportedly saw Barnes bring an underage female into a Marriott hotel.

As officers approached Barnes outside the hotel, he attempted to drive away, crashing into two patrol cars in the process. Two policemen opened fire, with one round striking Barnes in the hand. He faced a flurry of felonies after being released from the hospital — but he failed to appear at a court proceeding in September, leaving the charges pending in Fulton County court.

Barnes also reportedly shot a man twice in Conway, S.C. during a January 2018 drug deal, while he was already wanted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for aggravated assault charges. While his charges of attempted murder and illegal weapons possession were dropped, he pleaded guilty in 2019 to armed robbery and received a prison sentence of about three years.

Judicial records from 2013 to 2015 show Barnes has nearly a dozen additional convictions in Beaufort County, primarily for theft: two counts of felony larceny, five counts of larceny from a vehicle, one for tampering with a vehicle, possession of cocaine and two burglaries, one violent and one non-violent.

This story was originally published July 8, 2024, 10:17 AM.