Convicted prison escapees
get 10-year termsAlbert Batalona and Warren Elicker
will have the time added
to current sentences
Two men involved in the first prison escape from Halawa Correctional Facility were each sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison to be served on top of their current sentences.
Circuit Judge Marie Milks told Albert Batalona and Warren Elicker that she was ordering them to serve the 10-year sentences consecutively "to promote respect for the law." She did not want someone who has a life sentence to think they can go unpunished if they try to escape.
Once adjacent cellmates, Batalona and Elicker appeared in court yesterday wearing heavy prison chains and bright orange jumpsuits. They talked and joked with each other during the sentencing.
Batalona, 28, is serving a life term without parole for shooting at a police officer during a robbery of the American Savings Bank in Kahala in 1999.
Elicker, 25, will serve his 10 years on top of the 13 years and four months he has remaining on a mandatory sentence of 15 years for a robbery and kidnapping in Punaluu and a carjacking at Ala Moana Center.
Milks initially ordered that they each pay restitution of $91,529 for items that include damage to the cellblock and another $225,469 for the overtime law enforcement racked up in the week-long manhunt for the fugitives last April in the Hauula mountains.
Milks said of the manhunt, "There were extraordinary measures taken because extraordinary individuals were involved."
After defense lawyers' objections to the restitution, Milks said she wanted to study the issue and scheduled a Feb. 18 hearing to decide it.
In October an Oahu jury found Batalona and Elicker guilty of escape. Batalona was also found guilty of second- and fourth-degree theft for stealing a man's car and cell phone shortly after their prison break.
Batalona, Elicker and a third inmate, David Scribner, dug holes in their adjoining cell walls and escaped during a power failure. In August, Milks sentenced Scribner to serve concurrent extended terms of 10 years for the escape and 20 years for robbery.
Deputy Prosecutor Lori Wada told the court yesterday their "carefully planned" escape "held the island of Oahu in terror." Batalona is "clearly a danger to the public," she said.
She quoted his statement to the news media shortly after his recapture: "I am here for life. I have nothing to lose. I broke out and I will do it again."
Batalona told the court he was not a danger to the public. "When we were out there, no one was hurt," he said. "I was even on the bus."
In a statement to the court, Elicker said that during the escape, "I never harm nobody."
Elicker's attorney Shawn Luiz said the two had reason to escape the prison: "They felt they were treated like animals." They escaped because "they just wanted a new start," Luiz said.