Sheriff: Jail staff may have skipped check
By MARY ANN GREIERLISBON - A procedure to ensure inmates are in their cells after lockdown may not have happened Sunday night when four prisoners escaped from the maximum security section of the Columbiana County jail, according to Sheriff David Smith.
Smith explained that lockdown occurs at 11 p.m. and a guard "supposedly" goes to each door and physically sees and physically knows that a person is in their cell.
"Apparently that didn't happen," he said in reference to Sunday night.
William Merritt, 40, and Mark Foden, 38, both of East Liverpool, Jason Heffner, 28, of Salineville, and John Hamilton, 21, of Salem, crawled their way to freedom through the duct work in the facility, breaking through a hatch door to the roof and then jumping to the ground. Officials suspected they stole a 1995 Buick from a Trinity Church Road property in Lisbon.
All four escapees and Heffner's girlfriend, Melissa McCulley, 26, of Salineville, were taken into custody Monday afternoon in Bellevue, Pa., after the stolen car was spotted by police. Bellevue is located near Pittsburgh. They were expected to be extradited back to Ohio to face charges of felony escape, with McCulley to be charged with complicity to escape.
Smith said his personnel traveled to the Allegheny County jail on Tuesday to interview the suspects.
Back at the Columbiana County jail, which is operated by the private firm CiviGenics, officials from the Sheriff's Office and the company were interviewing employees. CiviGenics flew in personnel from Texas and Massachusetts to launch an internal investigation of the incident.
"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Smith said.
He estimated the time of escape occurred between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., noting the missing men were seen at a residence outside Summitville at 1:15 a.m. Monday. For them to break into a utility closet, break through an access door, crawl through the duct work, break through a hatch to the roof and leave the grounds would have taken at least a couple hours, Smith theoried. They would have needed more time then to steal the car and get to Summitville and to pick up McCulley.
When asked if a head count was completed at shift change, Smith said that's something being investigated. When asked to clarify if they were checking to see if a proper head count was completed, he responded, "The key word there is proper."
Questions remained about how they pulled off the escape, with the sheriff saying he didn't know how they found the escape route they took. He estimated they had to crawl at least 40 feet in total darkness through a passageway full of pipes and no wider than 3 feet in diameter. In spots, he said he was told the piping runs through the middle of the duct and they would have had to maneuver around it.
As for the doors, he said they had to break through three of them, beginning with the locked steel door to the closet, the panel door leading into the duct work and then the hatch to the roof which is pinned from the outside. He didn't know what they used to make entry into the doors.
"How these guys got out is unbelievable," Smith said.
When asked about their jail jumpsuits being on the roof, he said he didn't know anything about their clothing situation.
All four men had hearings pending in Common Pleas Court this week from charges which could result in prison time. Merritt was supposed to be arraigned Monday for first-degree felony charges of attempted murder and aggravated robbery for allegedly beating and stabbing a woman he knows last month in East Liverpool.
Foden had been scheduled to face trial Tuesday for two counts of robbery, a second-degree felony, for allegedly robbing two East Liverpool stores in March and threatening the clerks in the process. Heffner had a pretrial set for Friday for single counts of attempted theft, breaking and entering, theft and receiving stolen property and four counts of burglary. Hamilton also had a pretrial set for Friday for identity theft, misuse of credit card and receiving stolen property.
Mary Ann Greier can be reached at mgreier@salemnews.net
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BranLou
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08-21-08 10:27 AM
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After being housed in this facility, I find it hard to believe it really happened, however it did. I wonder though....not only did they have help from the outside,was there inside help too? I would have thought until reading this that it was impossible to accomplish such an escape...They did it & had they not stolen the car they possibly could still be free. I'm just overwelmed by the entire ordeal.
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WatchDog
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08-20-08 12:24 PM
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If an outside source was brought in, conducted an unbiased investigation I believe Sheriff Smith woud be singing a different tune? As would our county commissioners.
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