Escapee feared
rival gang threatsWarren Elicker says he wanted
to be free rather than be attacked
Inmate Warren Elicker said he escaped from the Halawa Correctional Facility because his life was being threatened by rival gang members.
"I wanted to be free and not worry about somebody coming behind my back, not worry about someone taking my life," said Elicker.
Elicker testified before Circuit Judge Marie Milks yesterday. He and co-defendant Albert Batalona are charged with second-degree escape. A third escapee, David Scribner, pleaded guilty in June.
Elicker, 25, is serving two 20-year sentences for a home invasion robbery in Punaluu and carjacking at Ala Moana Center.
Elicker said he had received threats from rival gang members who are a part of "La Familia" and "Mafiauso." Elicker said he is a member of the "USO family" and said rival gang members had made death threats against him and his family. When he used the phone, gang members would make threats through a glass window or shake and kick a door that was located near the phone, Elicker said.
"I felt like they were going to kill me, stab me in the neck," he said. "I've seen people get attacked, people carried out in a stretcher."
"They were saying they were going to shoot my mom, shoot my sister," he said.
Elicker said the guards would knock on the glass window and tell them to quiet down when they observed the gang members harassing Elicker. He said he did not file reports of the threats to the guards, police or his attorney.
"The only people I told was my family," he said.
On April 4, after escaping, Elicker said he hid near a bridge behind some bushes where Batalona and Scribner told him to wait because he was wearing the prison's brown uniform with white lettering "HCF" on his back. Batalona and Scribner allegedly robbed two men near Aloha Stadium of their cellular phones and a car.
Elicker said he felt a mix of shock, safety and fear when they escaped from prison and headed toward Hauula.
Elicker said he shared a cell with Scribner and had noticed space between a metal access door in their cell that led to water pipes when he learned Scribner was planning to escape. But Elicker said he never thought about escaping and wasn't involved in the plans.
"I told him, 'What's going on?'" Elicker said.
Several hours before the escape, Elicker said he decided to leave with them because he didn't know what he was going to do when the guards discovered that Scribner was missing.
After the three spent six days near Hauula surviving on fruit, beef jerky, granola and rain water, Elicker said he was the first to come down from the mountains.
He said he hopped into the bed of a white pickup truck after hitchhiking and was spotted by police near Castle High School and later arrested.
