A Warren County Jail inmate had a year added to his sentence after he was caught trying to tunnel out of his cell using only a block of wood.
The inmate, Tony Eugene Moore, 29, entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to the charge of vandalism. He was issued an 11-month, 29-day sentence for the misdemeanor and was ordered to make restitution to the jail. The conviction also violated his probation for initiating the manufacture of meth, leaving him to serve the balance of that sentence.
Moore was caught when a jail guard heard a tapping noise while making his rounds on the morning crew.
“I was working in the men’s tower when I detected the sound of something hitting on the walls of D-Block,” said jailer Johnathan Green.
The officer went for a closer inspection and discovered the source of the sound.
“Upon looking in the direction of his cell, I saw Tony Eugene Moore standing on a bunk in the cell while he was hitting the wall,” Green said.
When officers arrived at the cell they found the inmate with a block of wood. There were several cinder block chips in the cell, suggesting he had been trying to tunnel through the cinder block wall.
“A four-by-eight hole had been punched completely through to the next cell,” Green said.
Since the hole did not breach the main wall leading outside the jail, Moore was not charged with attempted escape. The damage is estimated at more than $500.