Man pleads guilty to escaping St. Louis County jail in 2025
Michael Todd Hart admitted escaping NERCC after a late-night head count found him missing, and the case later drew new scrutiny when he was mistakenly released from another jail.
Michael Todd Hart pleaded guilty on June 22 to felony escape from custody in St. Louis County District Court, admitting he left the Northeast Regional Corrections Center in Saginaw during the fall of 2025. The 41-year-old’s sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 17, 2026, before Judge Nicole L. Hopps in case file 69DU-CR-25-3143.
Hart’s plea closes one chapter of a case that exposed how quickly a custody failure can ripple beyond one facility. Court records and county statements show Hart had already been sentenced to 46 months in prison for felony burglary, misdemeanor assault and violating a domestic abuse no-contact order when he escaped. He later spent 106 days in the Itasca County Jail while other charges moved forward, adding another layer of detention to a case that began at the NERCC.
Authorities said Hart escaped on Sept. 23, 2025. He was last seen in the dining hall at 6:51 p.m., and a head count at 9:35 p.m. showed he was missing. A deputy responded about 10:06 p.m. after the absence was discovered. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office believed Hart was trying to make it back to the Iron Range, where he had friends and associates, and the search widened into a multi-agency effort that included the Aitkin-Itasca-Mille Lacs Violent Crimes Enforcement Team and the Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force.
Hart was found on Oct. 7, 2025, inside a residence in Cohasset, hiding under a basement stairwell. Officers deployed a pepper ball before taking him into custody, and authorities also arrested a 29-year-old woman for aiding an offender. Earlier reporting said two alleged accomplices were identified during the investigation. Hart later told FOX 21 he escaped to get cash jobs to help pay for his legal defense.
The case remained unsettled even after his arrest. Later reporting said Hart was mistakenly released from the Itasca County Jail because of paperwork errors, and a joint county statement said the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office played no role in that release. For St. Louis County, the guilty plea confirms the escape charge, but the record now also shows how a jail break, a countywide search, and a separate release failure can leave questions about supervision and communication long after the inmate is back behind bars.
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