Breaking out of halfway may have just brokered Brian Keith Speights a new deal with federal authorities, but it's no get-out-of-jail-free card—it's quite the opposite. Speights, a 67-year-old resident of Jacksonville with a prior conviction for drug-related charges, now faces the possibility of an additional five years behind bars for his escape act from a federal halfway house, as announced by Acting United States Attorney Sara C. Sweeney.

Here's the backstory: Speights was initially busted for using his place not just as a home but as a hub for pushing heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine, on top of that he had a collection of firearms, which the authorities argued wasn't for decoration but rather in service of his illicit trade, in court documents he was sentenced back in 2019 to seven and a half years in the clink on federal charges for his drug and gun combo, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

The turn of the new year marked Speights's surprise exit from the Bridges Federal Reintegration Center in Jacksonville, deemed "knowingly and willfully" by those reviewing his case file; essentially, he left without permission while serving his sentence, though whether he thought he could get away with it or was driven by desperation, remains untold, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office. His freedom was short-lived, however, as Speights was nabbed the day before the official announcement of his indictment and is now scheduled for an arraignment and detention hearing tomorrow, the indictment, though, is a formality—it's not a proof of guilt, as the presumption of innocence is a cornerstone of the justice system until proven otherwise.

A collaborative effort between the United States Marshals Service and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office brought Speights back into custody. The United States Attorney's Office pointed out that it's Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown spearheading the prosecution.