ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mistakes by prison employees contributed to the escape of murderer Geoffrey A. Ward, but there was no indication of criminal wrongdoing, Corrections Director Ron Angelone said Tuesday.
Ward, serving eight life sentences plus 140 years for two murders and three rapes, climbed a kitchen vent shaft at the Powhatan Correctional Center about 3:50 a.m. on Feb. 21, scaled five fences topped with razor wire and vanished into the fog-shrouded countryside 20 miles west of Richmond.
Prison officers didn't know that Ward was missing until almost four hours later, according to a five-page state police report on the escape. Ward was captured the next day about 15 miles away in Louisa County after walking across a highway bridge where a roadblock had been taken down overnight.
Col. M. Wayne Huggins, superintendent of state police, said the fog made it too dangerous for troopers to stop traffic at the bridge.
Angelone said the three Powhatan prison employees are under review and may be fired.
``Human error of this magnitude is inexcusable,'' said Secretary of Public Safety Jerry W. Kilgore. ``If the department's policies and procedures had been followed, the escape would have been prevented.''
But Angelone said no prison is escape-proof. ``If you have a door, because of human error, somebody could leave,'' he said.
Among the findings in the state police report:
* Ward climbed a 14-foot vent shaft while working overnight in the prison's kitchen. He told authorities he had a piece of hacksaw blade he had found in a kitchen closet, plus local maps and $200 in cash.
* When Ward escaped, the correctional officer in charge of him and six other inmates was working in another part of the sprawling, one-acre kitchen. Fifteen minutes later, that officer was relieved by another officer, who did not see Ward but made no effort to locate him until 7:30 a.m.
* Ward climbed four inner fences and a fifth, outer fence near a tower that isn't staffed overnight. The lack of a guard in the tower didn't matter, Angelone said.
``The fog was that dense,'' the director said. ``He would not have been seen.''
Angelone said Ward received an electrical shock from the 208 volts in the last fence. He said the inmate was lucky the shock didn't kill him, but it knocked him over the fence to the ground outside the prison.
* Ward used a sweat shirt to shield himself from the last fence. A prison officer who spotted the shirt hanging from the razor wire later that morning reported it to his supervisor, but the supervisor concluded the item was a piece of trash that had blown into the fence.
* A Powhatan resident spotted Ward that morning, but state police believe he had no other direct encounters with anyone until he was caught.
* During his brief freedom, Ward broke into a house in Goochland County. There, he ate some food, rested and bandaged the wounds he received from the razor wire.
The state police report also cited two telephone calls made by Ward to a friend in another state.
Robin Wolfe, an Iowa woman who met Ward after he went to prison, has told The Associated Press that Ward wanted her to pick him up. She said she told police where he was.
The state police report, which did not mention Wolfe by name, said police used ``technical investigative procedure'' to find Ward near where he made the second call.
Angelone said the escape obviously was planned rather than spontaneous and that Ward had ``a tremendous amount of luck'' just to get out of the prison.
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