Convicted Killer Lloyd Jones Escapes From Arkansas Prison

(Reuters) - A prisoner convicted of killing a 16-year-old girl escaped on Monday in Arkansas while he was working as a member of a prison work crew, a corrections spokesman said.

Lloyd Jones, 40, escaped from East Arkansas Regional Unit prison in the small community of Brickeys, about 100 miles east of the state capital, Little Rock, according to a post on the website of the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Jones had been serving a 60-year sentence after pleading guilty to murder in 2012, said Solomon Graves, spokesman Arkansas Department of Corrections.

The case stemmed from the murder of a girl Jones met near the Arkansas River and whose body he stuffed in a barrel after killing her, according to media reports at the time.

Jones escaped from a work detail about two miles from the main prison on a patch of state property where prisoners where working on a construction site, Graves said.

Graves said Jones was under armed guard when he ran away. He could not immediately say how Jones eluded the guard detail.

"Our focus right now is bringing the inmate into custody. How he got away will be determined at a later date," Graves said.

It is unclear if Jones is still wearing the white inmate uniform he had on when he escaped, according to Graves, who said investigators were trying to determine whether Jones knew anyone in the area.

Jones has multiple tattoos, including depictions of a dragon, a wizard and a skull, according to the website for the Department of Corrections.

Another inmate at an Arkansas prison had attempted to escape two months ago. That inmate was shot and killed shortly after leaving the secure fence, according to CNN.