Two inmates who walked away from a work detail in a minimum security prison in Washington County last week were arrested Tuesday at an Ellicott City motel, according to Maryland State Police.

Matthew Chait, 26, of Frederick, and Michael Johnson, 24, of Carroll County, were painting the exterior of the fence surrounding the Maryland Correctional Training Center Sept. 4 when they walked away from the detail, according to Cpl. James Updegraff, of the Hagerstown Maryland State Police Barracks.

Chait was serving a seven-year sentence for robbery, a weapons offense and vehicle theft; Johnson was serving an eight-year sentence for burglary.

Police later received a tip that the two were hiding at Brown’s Motel, on Baltimore Pike in Ellicott City.

A task force that included Maryland State Police and the U.S. Marshals arrested the pair late in the evening of Sept. 8, Updegraff said. The escaped inmates were the only two people in the motel room when police found them, Updegraff said.

— Mike Santa Rita

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