Jace Martin Laws, 34, is escorted by Cpl. Mark Polk and Cpl. Mike Nolan of the Gregg County Sheriff’s Department to a transport vehicle on Monday, January 6, 2020, in the sally port at the Gregg County Courthouse. Laws was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to an escape charge. The eight years, along with another eight years on a charge of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle stemming from a September 2018 incident, will be added to 40- and 30-year sentences he will serve concurrentlyon two countsof assault of a peace officer. (Michael Cavazos/News-Journal Photo)

LONGVIEW — An inmate who escaped from the Gregg County Jail, then was recaptured in Smith County, has been moved to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

By late Monday morning, Jace Martin Laws was booked into the Byrd Unit in Huntsville, Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano said.

Laws had been convicted on two counts of assaulting a police officer and escaped while awaiting trial on a third charge.

“Obviously, I’m glad that once we took him back into custody we were able to house him without incident, then get the paperwork completed and pushed through to get him transferred so he can begin serving his sentence,” he said.

Laws was recaptured Dec. 27, four days after his escape. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to new charges related to his escape, which added eight years to the term he was set to serve on the assault charges. He also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years on a charge of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle stemming from a September 2018 incident.

“It will be a long time before you have to worry about him again,” Cerliano said, saying Laws will serve a total of 40 years for the assault charges, then the eight-year sentences added last week will begin. At the time of his escape, Laws had served 467 days, the sheriff said, and his prison time will be reduced by that time.

Cerliano credited courthouse teamwork for getting the charges completed and the prisoner transferred quickly.

“It was a cooperative effort with the District Attorney’s Office, the district clerk and the court to be able to get all the … paperwork, along with the judgment, put together in a rapid time frame,” he said. “He pled at 1 on Thursday, paperwork went to TDCJ Friday and we got the movement order.”

The process usually can take weeks, Cerliano said.

Laws left the Gregg County Jail about 7:30 a.m. Monday.

The transfer was handled by Cpls. Mark Polk and Michael Nolen from the sheriff’s warrant division. They reported to Cerliano that Laws was in state custody about 11 a.m. Monday.

Laws’ recapture came after his father said he spotted him near his home, which is on the same land as Laws Collision Repair on U.S. Highway 271 west of Gladewater.

Jace Laws escaped by carving out portions of the South Jail in the Gregg County Courthouse on Methvin Street — gaining access to the building’s infrastructure — and made his way to the exterior of the courthouse, the sheriff’s office said.