OPELOUSAS — Two inmates escaped from the St. Landry Parish Jail on Wednesday morning, according to Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz.

Guidroz said 24-year-olds Keith Eli and Jonathan Jevon Joseph chipped away at the mortar on a "degrading" wall, allowing them to remove concrete blocks from the wall and escape.

"The inmates used sheets and other items to scale the outer wall, drop onto the first-floor roof and lower themselves to the ground," Guidroz said.

Joseph was in custody on charges of principal to first-degree rape, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a firearm with a controlled dangerous substance and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Eli had been arrested on an attempted second-degree murder

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