A Lady Lake woman emerged from her home last Friday, May 24, to find a man hiding in her car, which was parked in her driveway. It turned out the man, 32-year-old Jesse James Hall, had escaped from an Orlando prison facility two days prior, on May 22.

The woman heard her car alarm sound several times and went outside to investigate, according to a police report. When she opened the car door, Hall grabbed her right arm, but she pulled free, ran back inside her house and called 911. The woman also armed herself with a gun.

Hall was standing in the woman’s driveway when police officers for the Lake County town arrived. The suspect then “took flight,” according to the police report, and officers pursued him. Hall ran a short distance, then turned and gave himself up.

Hall was charged with burglary, battery, resisting arrest without violence and providing a false identification.

Hall originally told officers his name was Jesse Hillman, but officers were able to identify him through fingerprints.

After confirming Hall’s identity, police learned he was serving a seven-year sentence in state prison for two counts of grand theft auto, 2 counts of methamphetamine possession, and 2 counts of the sale of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a church. He was originally sentenced in March of 2019.

Details of Hall’s escape from prison in Orlando were not immediately available.

He was jailed with no bond issued due to his active warrant for escape from the Florida Department of Corrections. He remains in the Lake County jail.