ORLANDO, Fla. _ Lake County deputies are helping prison officials, police departments and the Florida Highway Patrol look for a man who escaped from prison, Sgt. Jim Vachon said.
Alinton H. John, 34, fled the Lake Correctional Institution, six miles north of Clermont on U.S. Highway 27 near Lakeridge Winery & Vineyards.
Vachon said deputies believe he stole a 2001 silver Toyota pickup with Florida tag JHWC97. The truck may have had a gun inside, but the owner was not positive, he said.
Patrol units, K-9 units are involved in the search, Vachon said.
A spokesperson with the Florida Department of Corrections said John walked away while working at the facility's motor pool. He was considered a minimum security inmate based on his good prison behavior, officials said.
FDOC records show John is serving a 15-year sentence for an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon conviction in Orange County.
In 2008, he pointed a gun at his ex-girlfriend's head and hit her in the head with the gun, court records say. He was on house arrest for another case out of Seminole County at the time of the incident, records say.
He was found guilty at a jury trial.
The prison has a maximum capacity of 1,076, the department of correction's web site states, and has only adult male inmates. The facility also has a staff of 324, and crews who do public works projects and roadside work for the Department of Transportation, the web site states.
The FDOC says it captured 93 percent of the inmates who escaped during the 2016-17 fiscal year.
