Inmate Escapes From Casper Re-entry Center

A Gillette man serving a sentence for a drug crime apparently escaped from the Casper Re-entry Center on Thursday, Natrona County Sheriff Sgt. Aaron Shatto said Friday.

Edward Smith, 26, left the Casper Re-Entry Center, 10007 Landmark Lane, at 7 a.m. Thursday for his job at a restaurant and was to have returned by 10:30 p.m., Shatto said.

Smith didn't return, he said.

He was convicted in Campbell County court in May 2015 for manufacturing methamphetamine, and was sentenced to a three-and-a-half-year to eight-year prison term, Shatto said.

Conviction of escape from a detention facility while serving a sentence for a felony is a felony itself, and is punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment.