Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 27, 1993 TAG: 9307270192
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The rope broke before a third inmate could slide four stories down in the escape attempt.
After turning back, the third escapee apparently fell and broke his leg as he tried to climb back into a rooftop recreation area where the breakout started, authorities said.
All three inmates were back in custody within 10 minutes of the 9:43 a.m. jailbreak - the first in the city since 1979.
"There was nothing wrong with jail procedure . . . It was just a well-planned and well-executed escape," said Maj. George McMillan of the Roanoke Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail.
The three inmates were being held on the jail's maximum-security floor on charges that include murder, bank robbery and drug dealing.
Authorities identified them as: Shawn Perkins, 24, who is serving five years on a cocaine conviction while fighting extradition on a New York murder charge; Timothy E. Jackson, 30, who is awaiting trial on federal charges stemming from a drive-by shooting that wounded a 4-year-old boy in Danville; and Larry C. Robinson, 43, who entered the jail just five days ago on federal charges of bank robbery.
Severe overcrowding in the jail did not play a direct role in the escape. But, McMillan said, "Anytime you're overcrowded and have fewer deputies to provide supervision, then you have problems."
McMillan and witnesses gave the following account of what happened:
Minutes before the escape, a guard escorted a group of eight inmates to the recreation area on the roof of the five-story jail. The area has concrete walls and a metal screen roof. Once a week, inmates are given the choice of the rooftop or an indoor gymnasium for 45 minutes of recreation time.
Unknown to the guard, some of the inmates had torn up sheets, knotted them together and concealed them under their jail clothing.
The guard then walked back into a hallway to monitor the inmates through a glass window. "He really hadn't left the area," McMillan said. "He just in effect had his back to them."
But that was long enough for the three inmates to boost themselves 14 feet up to a corner where the metal screen had apparently come loose.
"It was just a little bit of room for them to push back the screen," McMillan said. "It was a weak spot that apparently has been overlooked all these years."
Once they made it through the narrow opening, the inmates climbed down a ladder and ran to the edge of the jail roof that overlooks the city courthouse.
From there, they tied their makeshift rope to a large cable and tossed it over the edge. The rope extended about four stories down to the roof of the Sheriff Department's administrative offices, adjacent to the jail.
After two of the inmates made their way down the windowless jail wall, several pedestrians spotted them from a sidewalk on Church Avenue.
"It freaked me out," said one witness who asked not to be identified.
"At first I figured they had somebody up there working. Then I looked up and saw the sheet, and it dawned on me what was going on."
One witness ran into the courthouse and yelled for help. A bailiff hit an alarm that brought police officers and sheriff's deputies running.
By then, Perkins and Jackson had made it to the roof of the sheriff's department, where they jumped a final story to the ground and ran.
Both men were apprehended a few minutes later in the area of Fifth Street and Marshall Avenue.
Robinson, meanwhile, had apparently turned back after the rope broke at the end of the second inmate's descent. Authorities speculated that he was trying to get back into the jail unnoticed when he slipped and fell while climbing through the hole in the recreation area's roof.
The jail's 460-some inmates were placed on a lock-down status until everyone could be accounted for. By noon, McMillan said, "everything was back to normal."
The last time someone escaped from the jail was in 1979, shortly after it opened. McMillan said several inmates were able to slip out of faulty windows before repairs could be made.
Since then, the jail's population has soared to more than 500 inmates at times. The jail is supposed to hold no more than 236.
Because Martin is facing a murder charge in New York, authorities may delay charging him with escape until that case is resolved.
After he was charged with dealing drugs in Roanoke, Martin was accused in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man last year at a Syracuse apartment complex.
As for Jackson and Robinson, they will face a grand jury in U.S. District Court because they were being held as federal prisoners, according to U.S. Marshal John Metzger.
By the time Metzger was called into the investigation Monday morning, the escapees were already headed back to jail.
"It was phenomenal that they could catch them that quickly," he said.
by CNB