THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604130339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
The 21-year-old auto thief who slipped out of Pasquotank County's new prison Wednesday was back in custody Friday afternoon.
Stacy Clawson, also known as Paul Clawson, was arrested shortly after 2 p.m. in Elizabethton, Tenn., about 30 miles west of the North Carolina state line.
He was picked up by Carter County Sheriff's officials, who learned that Clawson was making phone calls from an apartment complex in the town.
``His girlfriend lived out that way,'' said Charles Creecy, administrator of the Pasquotank Correctional Institution. Creecy said he had called the Tennessee officials to warn them Clawson might turn up there.
``And he went that way. You get lucky sometimes.''
Carter County Sheriff Paul P. Peters Jr. said local officials weren't sure of the connection between Clawson and the woman whose apartment he had been using. The woman had been in the hospital for scheduled surgery Friday morning, Peters said.
Peters and three deputies pounded on the door to the apartment for several minutes before Clawson answered Friday afternoon, he said.
``We got him to the door,'' Peters said. ``We took him into custody without any incident. He came right along with us.''
Clawson, a minimum-security inmate serving a four-year, eight-month sentence for a 1994 auto larceny conviction, was discovered missing at a 9:20 p.m. head count Wednesday.
Officials believe he scaled a fence protected by razor wire, then stole an unlocked truck from nearby Commissary Road. Tennessee officials were still looking for the truck Friday.
``We're interviewing him now, trying to locate the vehicle,'' Peters said.
How soon Clawson returns to Pasquotank County depends on whether he fights extradition to North Carolina. When he returns, he'll find himself under closer watch.
``He'll get tried for the escape,'' Creecy said. ``And we'll demote him to medium custody once he gets back.''
The prison has housed about 220 minimum-security prisoners since the fall. Most of them serve on work details, picking up trash along roads and helping prepare a close-security facility slated to open next month.
The close-security building, on the same 96-acre compound as the minimum-security unit, is expected to house more than 900 prisoners serving time for serious felonies.
Officials have said the tighter security building should be virtually escape-proof if employees do their jobs well. Minimum-security inmates are less-closely supervised, Creecy said.
``We're trying to do our best,'' he said. ``We're investigating every aspect . . . to make sure that this doesn't happen again.''
KEYWORDS: ESCAPEE ESCAPED PRISONER < by CNB