Judge: Lake County prison inmate who escaped to be transferred to new facility

ORLANDO, Fla. — The 34-year-old inmate who escaped the Lake Correctional Institution last week before being captured will be transferred to another facility after facing a judge Sunday morning.

Alinton John was booked into the Orange County Jail about 10:30 p.m. Friday, records said. It's unknown where he was arrested or how he was found.

"You can get an attorney in Leon County," the judge said at the hearing. Leon County is near Tallahassee.

"Thank you, Lord," said John's sister when Channel 9's Karen Parks told her he had been captured.

The woman, who asked to not be identified, told Channel 9 Friday that her brother is a lovable person who has made mistakes.

"Sometimes in life, things -- how should I put it -- things make us upset," she said. "We do the wrong things, make mistakes and I know my brother has made a lot of mistakes."

John is accused of stealing a pickup from a man who was out working in a field on his property. He said he thought someone was pranking him at first, but someone else on the property told him he saw a man driving away in the pickup.

"He says that he had his earbuds in, he had the keys in the truck, he walked away, he was spraying weeds and he looked back (and) the truck was gone," said Alex McCaffrey, the man's son. "We have a gate with a lock on it. You don't expect people to wander (into) the middle of a farm."

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Deputies said that while they were investigating the theft Thursday they learned John showed up at his sister's Orlando home in the stolen pickup.

John Gladstone, John's father, told Channel 9 Friday that his son might have visited his girlfriend, who isn't the woman he is accused of beating 10 years ago.

Gladstone said John shares two children with his current girlfriend and that she might have a new boyfriend.

"Since he was a kid, something (has been) wrong with him," he said.

Gladstone said his son is smart, but he has a temper.

John, who was serving a 15-year prison sentence, was convicted in 2008 of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon in Orange County, according to FDOC records. He was scheduled to be released in 2023.

The victim said he put a gun to her head and pistol whipped her. She went to the emergency room where two staples were used to close her head wound.

Earlier that same year, she told police he, "grabbed my neck then punched my forehead several times with his fist," according to court documents.

FDOC's Office of the Inspector General, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office were involved in John's arrest Friday, officials said.

No other details were given.

Watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News beginning at 5 a.m. for updates to this story.

Cox Media Group