Daring escape OAHU COMMUNITY CORRECTIONAL CENTER is reviewing security yet again after prison inmate Kerbert Silva escaped last night for a second time in three months.
ends in 3 arrests
Security at OCCC is being
reviewed after three inmates
left their cells, two of them
making it over a fenceBy Nelson Daranciang
Star-BulletinThis time he was accompanied by accused killer Eric Vance, who is awaiting trial for the shooting and robbery of Kaneohe liquor store owner Song Choi Marshall on Christmas Eve.
Vance, 31, was recaptured last night at about 11 p.m. when he hitched a ride on Nimitz Highway near Sand Island Access Road with a car carrying plain clothes police officers. He surrendered without incident.
Silva, 37, was recaptured at 8 p.m. in front of Y. Hata & Co. Ltd., at 285 Sand Island Access Road. Police were called to the area by parking lot attendants at the New Hope Chapel across the street who noticed a man wearing an orange prison outfit jogging makai-bound on Sand Island Access Road.
"It's extremely frustrating and perplexing after having taken extra safeguards regarding Mr. Silva. Yet he still finds the opportunity to make his escape," OCCC warden Clayton Frank said this morning.
Prison officials upgraded security after Silva's last escape. He was at large for a week after scaling a razor wire fence on his birthday, Jan. 17.
FRANK SAID Silva scaled the same razor wire perimeter fence last night, despite extra razor wire that was placed on the fence after the Jan. 17 breakout. Silva was also to be handcuffed and shackled every time he left his cell. But during the escape at about 7:20 p.m. yesterday, prison officials said Silva and Frank were in adjacent cells and a third inmate, Paul R. Damas, 43, distracted a correctional officer and was able to get a control box and open 12 cells on the first floor of a special holding unit. Damas was caught trying to scale a fence after Silva and Vance had left the grounds. The other 21 inmates on the floor did not try to escape.
Silva and Vance overpowered a prison guard and locked him in one of the cells. They then scaled an interior fence, ran over the roofs of two modules and the kitchen building, ran across a parking lot and then scaled a perimeter fence along the Puuhale Road side of OCCC.
Frank said officials were able to track the escapees' movements using a new $385,000 security camera system. The guards fired six shots from two watchtowers as Silva and Vance scaled the perimeter fence.
Vance was taken to Queen's Medical Center for treatment of a strained or broken ankle. He and Silva suffered cuts on the hands, apparently from the razor wire. The three inmates are now back at OCCC and are facing escape, kidnapping and assault charges, officials said.
No guards were seriously injured.