THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 7, 1994 TAG: 9412070436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Less than 12 hours after he walked away from a Dare County prison work detail, Melvin Leo Houston of Wallace turned himself in to Duplin County authorities.
The 23-year-old was two months shy of parole when he escaped.
Houston was serving a four-year sentence for the sale and delivery of a counterfeit controlled substance. A state inmate being housed at the Dare County Detention Center, Houston told a fellow inmate about 3:45 p.m. Monday that he had to go to the bathroom.
He walked away, and did not return. Houston's grandmother notified Duplin County authorities of her grandson's whereabouts at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.
``I think once he got to Duplin County, he realized he had done the wrong thing,'' said Sgt. Jenny Fields, a spokeswoman for the Duplin County Sheriff's Department. ``I think his grandmother helped.''
Fields said she asked Houston why he escaped. He responded, ``Because I missed you Sgt. Fields.''
Houston allegedly made his getaway in a 1991 blue-green Chevrolet Cavalier rental car from the airport. The auto was reported missing at approximately 5:30 p.m., according to Dare County spokesman Charles Hartig.
If convicted on escape and auto theft charges, Houston could face an additional five years in jail.
Detention center Administrator Dave Cowan said Houston will not be returned to Dare County.
``He will be turned over to the Department of Corrections, and will probably be sent to a medium security facility.''
Houston is one of 66 state inmates in the Detention Center under an agreement worked out between the county and the Department of Corrections. The county is compensated by the state for housing the inmates.
Hartig said the number of state prisoners held at the facility fluctuates between 62 and 69. They are used by the county for certain work details. Prisoners are compensated between 70 cents to $1 per day, and the time they serve - called ``gain time'' - is used as part of an early parole program.
Hartig said this is the second escape involving state inmates at the Dare facility since the agreement was approved.
In August, two inmates walked away from a work detail, but were apprehended a short time later. by CNB