ST. LOUIS • An inmate who pulled off a dramatic but short-lived escape from the city Justice Center, using bedsheets to scale the downtown building in the early hours of April 22, pleaded guilty to the jailbreak on Monday and received the maximum sentence.

David G. White, 34, of the 5600 block of Hamilton Avenue in St. Louis County, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for one count each of escaping from custody and damaging jail property.

Authorities said White, along with Vernon Lamont Collins, 35, of the 4300 block of Ellenwood Avenue in south St. Louis, managed to escape the state-of-the-art facility by climbing through a ceiling panel in the infirmary, breaking a window, crawling down the glass facade with several bedsheets tied together, then jumping 25 feet to Tucker Boulevard below.

The two men were on the lam for less than 24 hours. White, who already had one broken leg and broke the other in the escape, was arrested near a St. Louis gas station. Collins was arrested as he tried to break into a Jennings home.

White was in the Justice Center awaiting trial on burglary and assault charges stemming from a Jan. 17, 2011 incident, in which he allegedly broke into his former girlfriend's apartment on Cottage Avenue, used a knife to break through the bathroom door where she was hiding, then stabbed her.

The woman's father shot White in the arm with a shotgun and told him to stay on the ground until police arrived, but White was able to escape by using the woman's 3-year-old son as a human shield, according to charges. That case is still pending, according to court records.  

When White was arrested for the January attack, he was on probation for tampering. He also has prior convictions for stealing and robbery.

Collins was in jail for allegedly stabbed a man, Eddie Bradley, nearly two dozen times at Bradley's St. Louis Avenue home  on March 1. Bradley ran for help and an officer spotted Collins hiding in Bradley's garage. Collins grabbed the officer's gun as he was arresting him, and shot the officer in the stomach. He was found hiding a short distance away.

That case, and the one involving his alleged role in the escape, are ongoing.

Collins has prior convictions for receiving stolen property, tampering and burglary.

A jail guard was charged with forging logs to say he had checked on the men when he hadn't, helping their escape.