Man Who Tried to Dig Out of Jail Sentenced

A man whose plan to dig out of the local jail was unraveled in June was sentenced Monday.

Marvin Lee Cure, born in 1977, is being held in the Missoula County Jail. On Monday, he appeared in District Court in Havre, where he was sentenced for two cases and had a suspended sentence revoked in another case.

marvincure-533x400-1 Marvin Lee Cure

Cure, who had pled guilty to criminal possession of dangerous drugs for a Feb. 12 incident, received three years with the Department of Corrections with a recommendation for screening into Nexus or a similar facility for that offense. As for the June incident where Cure was caught using a steel bar to dig out of the Hill County Detention Center, he was ordered to pay $1,027.40 restitution and got a suspended three-year sentence with the Department of Corrections. Cure also had a 36-month suspended sentence for criminal possession of dangerous drugs revoked. 

His DOC sentence is to run in addition to any other sentence he is serving. Cure also has a 1995 300-month sentence in Sweet Grass county for robbery. 

Cure’s plan to break out of jail was unraveled June 22, when three inmates in the Hill County Detention Center were interviewed about someone removing a steel bar from one of the steps. The bar could not be located.

One of the inmates told the deputy that Cure had shown him how he used something to chisel through the wall of his cell. Cure told the inmate he would be incarcerated “for a while.” The hole Cure had dug, the inmate said, was about 14 inches wide and eight inches tall.

Deputies initiated a shakedown, during which a hole the size of a cement block was discovered under Cure’s bunk. Investigators found out that Cure had been shoving rolled-up toilet paper around the hole to hide the mortar that was dug out. 

“The hole was to an outside wall, and daylight was seen when the cement block was removed,” court documents say.

Two pieces of steel were found after the cement block was removed. 

That cell was closed down for repairs, which was estimated to cost $1,500.

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