THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608110082
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LAURA LAFAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BURKEVILLE, VA. LENGTH: 80 lines
Inmates at the Nottoway Correctional Center - including two from Norfolk and one from Newport News - took four prison workers hostage in a botched escape attempt that ended at dawn Saturday. No one was seriously hurt.
In an earlier incident, another inmate stabbed two officers on Friday, corrections officials said.
The four inmates held their unarmed hostages - two correctional officers and two nurses - overnight in a classroom in the prison's educational section. They were armed with a shank, or homemade knife, officials said.
Negotiating by phone with Nottoway's assistant warden, the inmates asked to speak to a reporter and a representative from the ACLU.
``Certainly, they didn't get to talk to either,'' said Virginia Public Safety Director Jerry Kilgore.
Nottoway, a medium-security prison, is now under an indefinite lockdown, which means inmates will be in their cells for all but a few hours a day.
About 5:30 a.m. Saturday, a strike team of about 30 officers with stun guns, stun shields and shotguns holding nonlethal birdshot moved in to free the hostages.
The team shot hostage-taker William Thorpe, who had walked away from the others. During the subsequent rescue, a shotgun misfired, causing birdshot to ricochet off the floor and wound eight strike team members, including Nottoway warden David Robinson. None of the hostages was harmed. Officials said Thorpe sustained minor wounds.
``We attacked at the weakest point,'' said Ron Angelone, director of the Department of Corrections.
``In a struggle with one of the hostage-takers, one of the weapons discharged. All the strike force officers had superficial wounds, including the warden.''
Corrections spokesman David Botkins said the hostage-takers were:
Thorpe, of Petersburg, serving 51 years for robbery, assault and kidnapping.
Antoine Wicker, a Norfolk man serving 41 years and nine months for armed robbery.
Terrence Caliss Domio, also from Norfolk, serving four life terms plus 80 years for sexual assault and statutory burglary, including the rapes of four Wards Corner women in 1981.
Sherrion Sherman of Newport News, serving 13 years for robbery and use of a gun.
All four prisoners were taken to maximum-security prisons, where they will face kidnapping and other charges, said state prison officials.
The hostage incident began at about 9:30 p.m. Friday, when the four inmates jumped two officers in a breezeway, public safety officials said. The inmates dragged the officers behind a housing unit and tied them up with pieces of sheet and string. Two then donned parts of the officers' uniforms.
Wicker, one of the uniformed inmates, was caught soon afterward, trying to scale a fence. Domio, Sherman and Thorpe made their way to the prison medical unit, where they took another officer and two nurses hostage. They then headed for the academic section of the prison, taking another officer hostage on the way.
It was the second uprising at Nottoway this summer. On July 6, officers and inmates fought when prisoners refused to leave a recreation yard. No one was seriously hurt, state prison officials said.
Angelone said officials never considered ceding to the inmates' demands during the latest confrontation.
``We're not going to negotiate with individuals who started an escape attempt and now all of a sudden want to talk to people after taking four human beings and putting fear in their life,'' he said Saturday.
In a separate incident Friday, an inmate with a shank charged an officer in the recreation yard of the segregation, or punishment, unit. According to Botkins, the officer sustained superficial stab wounds in the left arm, and an officer who came to his aid was stabbed in the right shoulder.
The incidents were not connected ``other than that they happened on the same day,'' said Kilgore, the public safety director. ``Any time you have unruly inmates, officers run the risk of having to deal with the violence those inmates can bring upon them.''
The Nottoway prison, in rural southern Virginia, was built in 1984 to handle 768 inmates. It now has 1,149 inmates because they are placed two to a cell. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: ESCAPED PRISONERS KIDNAPPING
NOTTOWAY CORRECTIONAL CENTER by CNB