IZARD COUNTY, AR — (BrooklandNews.com) — June 17, 2025 — The man who caused a two-week-long manhunt has pleaded not guilty to escaping prison.
Grant Hardin, the former police chief of Gateway, Arkansas, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to escaping the North Central Unit in Calico Rock.
The incident, which occurred on May 25, 2025, led to a two-week-long manhunt by state and federal officials before Hardin was discovered about two miles from the prison, near Moccasin Creek.
The plea was entered in front of Izard County Circuit Court Judge Tim Weaver, who set a trial date for the November 5-7 term, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Hardin was serving a 50-year sentence for the 2017 murder of a Gateway city official, James Appleton, and a 1997 rape that was discovered after DNA was entered when Hardin was charged with murder.
He is being held in the Varner Supermax Unit in Lincoln County. A public defender was put in place to represent Hardin.