Jesse MathewsHamilton County prosecutors were shocked to learn that a confessed cop-killer and former fugitive is being housed in a medium security prison.
Executive Assistant District Attorney Neal Pinkston said he was contacted Thursday about Jesse Mathews' placement at Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tenn.
State offices were closed Monday for President's Day. Pinkston said he had not received a response since he sent the letter Thursday.
Pinkston said this morning he immediately contacted the Tennessee Department of Corrections last week and then sent a detailed letter of Mathews' criminal history and a possible escape attempt while he was here in Hamilton County.
While awaiting trial Mathews told jailers he had an ice pick lodged in his rectum that he could not remove. He was transported to a local hospital but medical officials never found an ice pick. Pinkston wrote in the letter that Mathews could have been lying about the ice pick but either way his behavior presented danger to the public and law enforcement.
For more see tomorrow's Times Free Press.