Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411280067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BROADWAY LENGTH: Medium
Officers searched through early Saturday morning in the Mount Crawford area near the Rockingham-Augusta county border, where a Jeep Renegade stolen from outside the prison was found, but with no results, said 1st Sgt. B.R. Ritenour of the Virginia State Police in Harrisonburg.
Ritenour said leads in that area seemed to dry up.
``There has been absolutely nothing going on during the night or this morning as far as any leads or possible sightings,'' he said. ``We do have officers patrolling the area, but the search is now really statewide and, in fact, national.''
The inmates escaped about 12:45 a.m. Friday from Harrisonburg Correctional Unit No. 8 during a count of the 138 prisoners at the facility near Linville, about five miles north of Harrisonburg.
A white, 1985 Chevrolet pickup truck was stolen Friday in Augusta County about a half-mile from where the inmates abandoned the Jeep. Ritenour said it has not been found.
``That was a very good lead, the only thing was that they got away from us,'' he said. ``We didn't get information on the stolen pickup truck until several hours after it was stolen.'' Ritenour said the pickup had been parked at a barn that is not near a house, and that may have delayed the discovery of the theft.
The inmates were identified as George E. Cozino, 21; Wayne C. Anderson, 21; Wayne G. Weis, 20; Phillip W. Hayes, 19, and Charles W. Mongold, 23.
The inmates have connections across Virginia, with former addresses in Winchester, southwest Virginia, Goochland County and Richmond, said Mary Evans, a state police spokeswoman.
A state police tactical team in the Richmond area responded to possible sightings in Chesterfield and Goochland counties Friday night with no results, Evans said.
In the escape, the inmates locked up two guards and beat two others. One guard, Brad Swecker, was treated at Rockingham Memorial Hospital and released. The other, Gary Herron, remained in the hospital Saturday night after facial surgery earlier in the day, corrections department spokesman Jim Jones said.
Herron suffered a broken nose, fractures to bones under an eye and a fractured rib, Jones said, adding that Herron was recovering well and should be released soon.
White said a lockdown imposed at the prison after the escape was lifted at 10 a.m. Saturday. ``We've got everything back running smoothly,'' he said.
The escape was the first at the prison in 11 years, Jones said. In the previous escape, one prisoner fled.
The five-man escape was the worst for the corrections department since five inmates cut their way out of the Nottoway Correctional Center on Thanksgiving Day in 1984.
by CNB