THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 7, 1995 TAG: 9512070334
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK AND LARRY BROWN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: YORK COUNTY LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
In the past 23 years, Darryl Carter Payne, alias Chico Rivera, has been married twice, fathered three children and worked quietly as a successful appliance salesman at a Montgomery Ward's in Newport News.
A full life by most standards. But for Payne it proved to be only half the story.
His life before the early 1970s included a tour on the wrong side of justice. Police in Ohio say Payne was convicted of manslaughter and other crimes and that he took part in a daring prison escape near Cleveland on a winter night in 1972.
Until Wednesday morning, Payne's past was masked behind a new identity that gave him a fresh and varied life on the East Coast.
It all ended when a suspicious rookie state trooper saw the 46-year-old Payne bump into traffic cones as he pulled his car to a stop on the Yorktown side of the Coleman Bridge shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Normally, Trooper Phillip Lowrance would have checked out Payne like any other traffic violator. But Lowrance said he became suspicious of Payne soon after he handed the trooper a Virginia driver's license that identified him as Chico Rivera.
``It just felt there might be something more to it,'' said Lowrance during a press conference in Newport News Wednesday. ``When I talked to him, he just seemed a little more cautious.''
That convinced Lowrance to look more deeply into Payne's past. After writing Rivera a ticket for driving under the influence and taking him to the Yorktown County Sheriff's Department, Lowrance went to work with sheriff's deputies on the computer.
The computer check showed that Rivera had a clean record. Not even a traffic violation.
But along with the clean record, Lowrance said, a state identification number popped up on the computer screen under Rivera's name.
That number indicated to authorities that Rivera was wanted somewhere in the state. More checking led to an FBI number, and that opened up the past record of Rivera, alias Darryl C. Payne.
It showed that Payne was two years into serving a 3- to 32-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and malicious destruction of property when on March 11, 1972, he and two other prisoners escaped from the Ohio State Reformatory, located about an hour south of Cleveland in Mansfield, Ohio.
Payne and another prisoner pulled knives on their driver and escort after returning from a ``scared-straight'' speaking engagement at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The prisoners apparently got the knives after eating at a restaurant following the speaking engagement, authorities said.
The prisoners demanded that they be taken to downtown Cleveland, where they fled. The other two prisoners were captured a few days later, according to Ohio authorities.
Payne, though, began a new life.
Where he went immediately after the escape, and for the next 16 years, is not known. Payne refused to be interviewed Wednesday.
But around 1988 Payne moved to the Newport News area. He was married with two sons, who now are 21 and 14. Eventually he was divorced, but then remarried and had another child with his new wife. Authorities would not identify either woman Wednesday.
Soon after moving to the Peninsula, Payne began working in the electronics department at the Montgomery Ward's store on Denbigh Boulevard.
Payne's supervisor, Jim Hanford, would not comment Wednesday, but Payne apparently was successful at selling appliances. He was promoted to electronics floor manager, and even sold a television set to a York County sheriff's deputy several years ago, according to York County Sheriff P.S. Williams.
Williams said Payne also tried to sell Lowrance appliances Wednesday before the trooper uncovered Payne's secret life.
Payne apparently felt that his past would always be concealed. He told Lowrance Wednesday that he wasn't even worried after being stopped at the Coleman Bridge.
``He indicated to me that at no time was he concerned that his background record would come up on the computer,'' Lowrance said.
Lowrance said Payne initially denied being anyone other than Chico Rivera when confronted with his past. When Lowrance tried a second time, Payne told the trooper that he did not want to discuss his past. Finally, on a third attempt, Payne admitted that the trooper was right and talked a little about his past.
``Mr. Payne was very gracious and very cooperative during the entire process,'' Lowrance said. ``And he continues to be so.''
Payne, Lowrance said, had only recently moved to Gloucester County from Newport News and was returning home from work Wednesday when he was stopped.
``He said that he had had a very long day and was very tired,'' Lowrance said.
In addition to DUI, Payne was charged Wednesday with being a fugitive from justice. He is being held at the York County Jail without bond.
A bond hearing is not likely until next week, jail officials said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Darryl Carter Payne, alias Chico Rivera, had been convicted of
manslaughter and other crimes.
KEYWORDS: FUGITIVE ARREST DUI ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB