
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 23, 1994                   TAG: 9405230062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PETERSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

CENTRAL STATE PATIENT, 17, ESCAPES

Authorities say a 17-year-old patient at Central State Hospital slipped through a fence and was missing for more than five hours, marking the second escape from the hospital in less than a month.

The hospital notified state police of the escape just after noon Saturday, said police spokeswoman Mary Evans.

The boy, who is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 105 pounds, pushed aside a hospital staff member and left the facility through a 5-inch space in the gate of a chain-link fence, said Jim Bumpas, the hospital's acting facilities director.

"He apparently wedged himself through some bars that the trooper said it would be hard for anyone to get through, but he did," Evans said.

State police tracked the boy to a Chesterfield apartment where he barricaded himself inside. A policeman persuaded the teen-ager to surrender, Evans said.

The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, was at the hospital awaiting a trial on charges of perjury and marijuana possession, Evans said. A juvenile detention facility in Chesterfield County had transferred the boy to the hospital, she said.

by CNB