BURNETTE

A Colquitt County Correctional Institution inmate took a cue from “Cool Hand Luke” Wednesday morning, using a bathroom break to wander off from a road work detail.

The inmate, identified as Christopher Burnette, 26, left the road crew at about 10 a.m., Warden Billy Howell said. He was working with a Colquitt County Roads and Bridges crew that was replacing a drain pipe close to U.S. Highway 319 south of Moultrie.

“We had a work detail that morning on Turner Road, just south of the airport in the Murphy community,” Howell said. “They were working, he went into the bushes to use the bathroom. He left his vest and didn’t come back.”

Burnette is described as a white male, 5’ 7” tall, weighing about 155 pounds with brown hair and eyes. He had been sentenced on charges that included burglary, entering auto, credit card fraud, possession of depressant stimulants and controlled drugs, possession of a firearm, theft by taking, theft by taking and theft by deception.

“We’re pretty sure we have the area cordoned off” around the prisoner, Howell said.

Anyone who sees Burnette, who was thought still to be in prison clothing as of about 1 p.m., can report it to Colquitt County 911.