SHAFER
By William Moore
Daily Journal
NEW ALBANY – Freedom only lasted about 24 hours for a man who broke out of the Union County Jail early Thursday morning.
Michael Wayne Shafer, 28, was taken into custody at his mother’s house on Ebernezer Street in Louisville just after midnight Friday morning. Two hours later, he was back in the jail in downtown New Albany.
Following his arrest, Shafer’s wife, brother and sister were all arrested and transported to the Union County Jail. Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards said the sister, Sarah Nicole Datakji, was arrested in Union County; the wife, Crystal Shafer, was arrested in Winston County; and the brother, Timothy Shafer was arrested in Union County. Edwards expects the trio to be formally charged with aiding and abetting in Union County on Monday. Michael Shafer also will face a single charge of jail escape, which carries up to a five year prison sentence.
The investigation continues into how Shafer escaped. Edwards has said the jail suffered some sort of “electrical problem” to allow the escape.
Shafer was brought into the Union County Jail last week on a probation violation after being arrested in Winston County. He was stopped by Winston County Sheriff’s deputies on July 5. Inside his vehicle, officers found a felony amount of methamphetamine, marijuana, paraphernalia, a sawed off shotgun with 40 rounds of buckshot and an assortment of knives.
william.moore@journalinc.com