BESSEMER – A Jefferson County Jail inmate charged with capital murder has overpowered a bailiff, stolen his weapon and his uniform before getting away in a stolen van.

Lakendall Sims, who faces charges from 2007 on capital murder and home invasion, was being taken to a hearing in Circuit Judge Judge Mac Parson’s sixth-floor courtroom when he escaped Tuesday.

Court officials said the bailiff, who was overpowered in a hallway and beaten, was taken to a hospital.

Police locked down the courthouse and blocked several streets in downtown Bessemer in the search for Sims. Authorities said no one was hurt when the van was commandeered from a woman.