COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A young man from Adrian is being held in the Branch County Jail without bond after he allegedly tried to escape from custody in the area of the Branch County Courthouse Tuesday morning.
19-year-old Jacob Beatty was originally ordered to serve five years of probabtion last September after entering a no contest plea to a charge of attempted first degree criminal sexual conduct. Beatty was also given a nine month jail sentence with credit for 272 days already served. The case was filed in connection with a sex crime involving a four-year-old boy in Sherwood Township.
But Beatty was booked at the Branch County Jail this week for violating his probation.
Authorities say he was in chains when he tried to make a run for it. He was apprehended near Pearl and Division by the Branch County Sheriff’s Department and Coldwater Police. Among those assisting in the apprehension was Coldwater Director of Public Safety Joe Schied, who ran from the Public Safety Building a half block away when a call for assistance was made.
A Branch County Circuit Court spokesperson says Beatty is facing two counts of failing to register as a sex offender. A pretrial conference is scheduled for February 24, 2020.
