Prisoner convicted in Brunswick County who walked off job site found

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — A minimum custody offender was captured on Sunday at a hotel in High Point, three days after he reportedly walked off his prison job assignment.

Wake Correctional Center offender Michael Lee Willis-Rockett was taken into custody around 9 A.M. by Department of Public Safety officials.

Authorities say they found him at a Hotel NC in High Point and recognized him by his tattoos.

He will face charges of escape. On Thursday, he reportedly walked away from his prison job on at the Department of Public Safety’s Correction Enterprise warehouse in Apex, where he loaded trucks of supplies for the prison system.

Willis-Rockett was serving a two-year sentence for identity theft/fraud and a probation revocation. After conviction in Brunswick County, he was admitted to prison on November 7, 2018. He had been scheduled for release on December 18, 2020.