ABILENE, Texas - Adding to a string of jailbreaks statewide, a convicted killer overpowered a correctional officer and escaped from a state penitentiary Sunday.<br>
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John William Roland, 33, took Sgt. Wesley Hurt's uniform, handcuffed and beat him before escaping in Hurt's pickup truck about 4:45 a.m., Larry Todd, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He said there was no weapon in the truck.<br>
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Hurt was hospitalized in stable condition with cuts and bruises.<br>
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Roland has been serving a life sentence for murder in the Robertson Unit in Abilene, about 170 miles west of Dallas, since 1993, Todd said.<br>
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The escape from the state facility follows a string of county jail breaks.<br>
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Two convicted murderers and two others awaiting trial on murder charges escaped Jan. 28 from the Montague County Jail by overpowering a female guard and fleeing in her sport utility vehicle.<br>
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They were taken back into custody Feb. 6 at a convenience store near Ardmore, Okla., after a nine-day manhunt.<br>
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On Feb. 5, two men broke out of the Hood County Jail in Granbury. They were captured five days later in Fort Worth.<br>
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According to the state jail commission records, 56 inmates broke out of county jails in Texas last year, including 15 from maximum-security or medium-security facilities and 29 from minimum-security cells or prisoner hospital wards. <br>
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