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Gaither gets month for dash from courtroom
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A man who bolted from the courtroom but was caught minutes later hiding in the shadows of a downtown church had a month tacked onto to his jail sentence for his short taste of freedom.The escapee, Justin Patrick Gaither, 25, was ordered by General Sessions Judge Bill Locke to serve 30 days of an 11-month, 29-day sentence.His sentence comes for the incident which happened just before Christmas while Gaither was in the courtroom of then-General Sessions Judge Larry Ross, who has since retired. Warrants against Gaither revealed the defendant had his probation revoked by Judge Ross and was going to be sent to jail. He had been on probation for joyriding and owed the court 90 days in jail.After learning he was going to be taken straight to jail from court, Gaither started to walk to the back of the room to be taken into custody but then bolted out the rear door, wrestling his arm loose from the court officer who tried to grab him as he made his dash.The chase spilled out onto Morford Street behind the courthouse with officers running after Gaither as he headed toward Chancery Street.