Left: Leonor Priestle booking photo (Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department). Right: Robert Yancy Jr. booking photos (Texas Department of Criminal Justice).
A sex offender serving a life sentence in Texas who escaped from prison allegedly with the help of his mother has been captured, and he now faces new felony escape charges while she too has legal troubles of her own.
Robert Yancy Jr., 39, was captured in Matagorda County, Texas, on Tuesday, the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook.
Yancy Jr. was serving a life sentence for the continuous aggravated sexual assault of a 7-year-old child in Victoria County. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said an investigation into Yancy Jr.’s getaway from the Clemens Unit in Brazoria indicated he left the prison on Sunday around 3:30 p.m. in a 2021 White Nissan Versa.
He was wearing mostly all-black clothing including a black beanie and sweater.
A Brazoria sheriff’s deputy spotted the Nissan and entered the license plate into a reader. It turned up a hit showing the car was in Victoria County.
When officers finally located the car, they found Yancy Jr.’s mother, Leonor Priestle, driving it. Yancy Jr., however, was not with her. He was located later on and taken into custody.
Court records reviewed online by Law&Crime on Tuesday confirm she was arrested on Dec. 17 and charged with permitting/facilitating an escape. Her bond was set at $250,000.
Priestle’s boyfriend, Russell Williams, was arrested on Dec. 18 and charged with criminal intent to escape since he also allegedly helped Yancy Jr., according to Victoria County Sheriff’s Office records reviewed Tuesday. His bond was set at $30,000.
Russell Williams booking photo Victoria County Sheriff’s Office
Authorities allege Priestle helped Yancy Jr. leave the Clemens Unit after a visit with her son. They say she also gave him the black hat and sweater to wear and that Yancy Jr. had somehow managed to get an ID that helped him pass through security on the way out with his mother. The ID he used reportedly was not his but guards did not notice.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to an inquiry about security measures at the jail.
KTRK spoke to officials this week who said Priestle is a former corrections officer and that her insider knowledge of the jail system in Texas, while she worked at a facility in Beeville, helped her pull off her son’s escape.
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