Lang
8/18/24
A Hope House escapee with a colorful criminal history, including threatening an Iowa City restaurant employee with a knife and burglarizing a business while nude, is now back in custody.
Hope House officials say 62-year-old Brett Ayers signed out of the Holiday Road facility just after 9:00 on the morning of July 11th. Ayers did not return when scheduled, and he was eventually captured and booked into the Johnson County Jail just before 7:15 Friday night.
Ayers was given a five-year prison sentence on a 3rd Degree Burglary charge in 2023 after he caused extensive damage to the Salvation Army location on Gilbert Court. Ayers entered the business before it opened and destroyed several items before barricading himself in a room while naked. He also took meat from the freezer and ate it.
Ayers was also convicted of Assault With a Dangerous Weapon in 2021 and given a one-day jail sentence after threatening an employee at Orchard Green on South Gilbert Street by wielding a switchblade in front of her and threatening to stab her in the heart.
Ayers is charged with Voluntary Absence From Custody. If convicted, he faces a maximum of one year in jail.