Hardin, who escaped from Calico Rock prison, pleads guilty

Grant Hardin, the former police chief from northwest Arkansas who escaped from the Arkansas Department of Corrections North Central Unit at Calico Rock last year, pleaded guilty in Izard County Circuit Court Tuesday morning. He was charged with second degree escape. He was sentenced to 13-years, which will be added consecutively to his 80-year sentence he was already serving for rape and murder.

Hardin escaped from the prison in May of 2025 and was captured nearly two weeks later along Moccasin creek, one and a half miles west of the prison.

Hardin was the former Police Chief of the city of Gateway in northwest Arkansas where he served five months before resigning.

He was sentenced to 30-years in prison in 2017 for murder and in 2019 he received a 50-year sentence for rape.

His crimes were the subject of a TV special in 2023 called “Devil in the Ozarks.”

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