True Crime
A pencil opened a South Carolina cell. The tape is an escape case, not a comedy bit.
As of Sept. 17, the viral clip is still circulating, and Charles Dieterich was recaptured in minutes. New counts are pending process.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Jail video can prove an escape. It does not decide the extra counts that come after the fence. Chesterfield County, S.C., says Charles Alexander Dieterich, 30, used a pencil on Sept. 1 to manipulate his cell lock, walked through a kitchen trustee door, and went over barbed wire. Deputies had him on Jones Road about half an hour later. The sheriff’s office added unlawful escape, resisting arrest, assault on an officer, and property damage on top of the cases that had him in custody. A circulating clip is why the public knows the mechanism. The legal file is the new charging stack and whatever the jail changes about that lock.
As of Sept. 17, 2026, the escape is a concluded event and an open prosecution. Recapture is not a trial. Assault and resisting still have to be proved if they are contested. The original holds — vehicle theft, drug distribution, failure to stop — remain their own dockets.
Security reviews after a pencil defeat a lock are administrative. They are not a finding that the inmate is a genius or that the jail is a joke. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Shop
Checkout is on Shopify. A few from the rack:
More on the desk
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Tuscaloosa police charged Daronte Collins with felony murder after a Saturday apartment-complex shooting.
WBRC's jail photo is captioned Daronte Collins and puts both men at 22. The Tuscaloosa Thread, citing Violent Crimes Unit Lt. Michael Hall, spells the charged man Deronte and puts both at 20. Patch and the Calhoun Journal also use Daronte and 20. A felony-murder count, which the Thread and the Journal describe as Alabama's rule when someone dies during a robbery, is not a finding that Collins fired the shot that killed Tyson. The Thread says the 25-year-old has not been charged.
Read the take
Reporting noted by WBRC, Tuscaloosa Thread, Calhoun Journal, and Tuscaloosa Patch.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
High Point police charged Kymberli Bowden with first-degree murder in her 13-year-old daughter's death.
The Oct. 8 release is a new murder count on a case the department charged in 2025 as felony child abuse and concealment of death. It is not a trial. The murder-charge release says she remains in jail with no bond. WXII reported a violent-offense hold and a $1 million bond on the older counts. The 2025 release listed her age as 44. The murder-charge release, WXII, and FOX 35 Orlando list 45.
Read the take
Reporting noted by High Point Police Department, WXII, FOX 35 Orlando, and News & Observer.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Chicago police charged Chevazz Campbell in the stabbing death of CTA janitor Julian Mobley.
A detention hearing is the first court date. It is not a finding that Campbell stabbed anyone. The department's Sunday release says he robbed and fatally stabbed a 41-year-old man in the 2000 block of West Lake Street. ABC7 and CBS Chicago name that man as Julian Mobley and describe a fare dispute that turned into a stabbing. The department's charge list and CBS Chicago's shorter summary do not match count for count.
Read the take
Reporting noted by Chicago Police Department, ABC7 Chicago, and CBS Chicago.