Murder convict who escaped Montgomery job site now at maximum-security prison

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Ala. (WSFA) - David Kyle, the convicted murderer who walked off an assigned job site in Montgomery in late April, only to be recaptured more than a week later, has been transferred to a new, maximum-security prison.

The Alabama Department of Corrections inmate search database shows that Kyle is now incarcerated at St. Clair Correctional Facility, which houses more than 1,000 of the state’s most violent inmates. It’s located in St. Clair County, north of Birmingham.

David Kyle, serving a 99-year sentence for murder, has been recaptured in north Alabama... — David Kyle, serving a 99-year sentence for murder, has been recaptured in north Alabama following his escaped from a Montgomery job site on April 23.(Source: Cherokee County Sheriff's Office)

Kyle was being housed at the Montgomery-based Red Eagle Work Center when he fled the job site near Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery where he was being supervised on April 23.

He was recaptured on May 2 after a manhunt involving the U.S. Marshal’s Service, the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.

Kyle is serving a 99-year sentence for a 2000 murder conviction out of Etowah County. He was also sentenced to eight years in prison for a separate arson conviction. According to a 1999 article from the Associated Press, Kyle, then 27, was a known drug dealer who shot a man to death in 1998 and then left his remains in the trunk of a burning vehicle. The article also indicates Kyle was serving a separate 8-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 1998 to burning the business of an employer who had recently fired him.

In addition to Kyle’s recapture, police arrested and charged Susan Lemley, 40, of Gadsden, with facilitating his escape. Lemley was transferred to the Montgomery County Detention Facility where bail was set at $5,000.