Che-Tiul gets 20 years for 2023 jail escape, child molestation

Monett man was ringleader of Barry County jailbreak; captured in Pennsylvania by marshals

The man who masterminded the Barry County jailbreak in June of 2023 was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, Feb. 3. Mario Che-Tiul received the sentence in the Stone County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree assault and one count of escape from confinement. He was given two consecutive 10-year sentences for the assault charges, and a seven-year sentence for the escape from confinement charge. Che-Tiul’s sentence for escape from confinement will be served concurrently with the two 10-year prison terms. As part of the plea bargain, two first-degree kidnapping charges were dismissed.
Che-Tiul was one of seven inmates in the Barry County Jail who broke out on June 1, 2023. He and the other six inmates assaulted two members of the jail staff and locked them in the jail pod before escaping. The other six inmates, Derson Pelep, Rolondo Saldivar, Axel Agans, Andrew Madewell, Jonathan Saucedo, and Harley Joe Wilkins, were recaptured shortly after the jailbreak. Che-Tiul escaped with the help of a person who drove him away in a motor vehicle and was recaptured by the U.S. Marshal’s Service on Sept. 21, 2023 in Avondale, Penn. His case was transferred to Stone County in February of 2024 on a change of venue.
Che-Tiul was originally charged with first-degree child molestation and incest in December of 2022. On Feb. 3, he pleaded guilty to the child molestation charge in Barry County and was sentenced to 20 years in prison; he will serve that sentence concurrently with the sentence imposed on him in Stone County. As part of a plea bargain, the incest charge was dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.
Che-Tiul remained in custody in the Barry County Jail until Monday, Feb. 10, when he was transferred to the Missouri Department of Corrections.