Crash leads to missing teen, jail escapee

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A registered sex offender who scaled a jail wall to escape was arrested Monday along with a teenage girl who went missing the day after he fled.

Police said John Kaleb Gillespie, 30, and the teen were captured following a car crash and a foot chase in suburban Birmingham, authorities said.

Video from a police drone showed officers surrounding a car to arrest the man, who was led away in handcuffs.

Gillespie and the girl were charged with resisting arrest, and the man also was charged with attempting to elude police, Hoover police said in a statement.

Sheriff’s officials in Morgan County said Gillespie used a bedsheet to go over a jail wall on Oct. 27, and a girl with whom authorities said he had ties left her home in Moulton the day after and wasn’t seen again.

Hoover police described the youth as a runaway.

A police statement said a Hoover officer spotted a man and a female in a vehicle outside a hotel about 5 a.m. Monday, and the vehicle sped away as the officer spoke with the man, who was driving.

Police spotted the car on Interstate 459 and the vehicle crashed as the driver attempted to exit, the statement said. Both the man and the teen got out and ran, but police captured her quickly.

Officers using an aerial drone later spotted a man walking near an industrial building and getting in a car. The drone operator sent officers from Bessemer and Jefferson County to the scene, where the man was arrested.