• 'We made mistakes': Convicted murderer mistakenly released from jail rearrested

    Cook County Sheriff via AP

    This photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Steven L. Robbins, a convicted murderer police in Indiana. He was mistakenly released from custody in Chicago on Wednesday and rearrested late Friday.

    By Jason Keyser, The Associated Press

    CHICAGO -- A convicted murderer from Indiana who was mistakenly released following a Chicago court appearance was back in custody Saturday after authorities tracked him down about 60 miles away.

    Steven L. Robbins, 44, was rearrested late Friday night without incident in Kankakee, south of Chicago in northeastern Illinois, the Cook County Sheriff's Department said in a news release. Although the details of his capture weren't immediately released, officials said they used various leads and interviews with friends and family members at police headquarters to locate him.

    The reason Robbins was able to escape in the first place, Illinois officials acknowledged, was because they lost paperwork directing them to return him to Indiana.

    Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana and was escorted by Cook County sheriff's deputies to Chicago this week for a court appearance in a separate case involving drug and armed violence charges — a case that had actually been dismissed in 2007.

    After appearing before two Cook County Circuit Court judges, Robbins was taken to a jail on Chicago's South Side. He was released hours later, instead of being sent back to Indiana to continue his murder sentence. The public was not alerted that he was on the loose for about 24 hours.

    'We made mistakes'
    Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Friday took responsibility for Robbins' release, saying a document showing he should be returned to Indiana disappeared while his deputies were transporting the prisoner, sometime between a Tuesday court appearance and his return to jail after a second court appearance Wednesday. Robbins was released Wednesday evening.

    "We're not ducking the fact we dropped the ball. We made mistakes," Dart said. "The public deserves much more. We're going to find out what went wrong here."

    But Dart and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, both prominent local Democrats, exchanged tense words about who should accept responsibility for having Robbins brought to Chicago from Indiana.

    Alvarez said her office had told Dart's office that it didn't need to bring Robbins from Indiana because the drug and armed violence case was closed. But Dart's office proceeded anyway, she said, because of confusion over the outcome of the case and because Robbins demanded to stand trial.

    "The Cook County Sherriff's Police, despite the fact that the assistant state's attorney told them that they didn't have to bring him back, they thought it would be better if they did bring him back to get this all cleared up because the guy keeps writing letters demanding trial," Alvarez told reporters.

    But Dart said his office sought — and was granted — permission from the state attorney's office to bring Robbins to Chicago. The sheriff showed The Associated Press a copy of the extradition request from September signed by one of Alvarez's prosecutors.

    "We can't just go to any state in the country and say 'You know what? We're going to take someone out of your prison and bring him here.' ... They're the ones that signed off on allowing us to go get this guy," Dart said.

    Dart also said that because of an antiquated computer system, his office thought an arrest warrant for Robbins in the case was still active, which is why it asked the state attorney's office for permission to extradite Robbins.

    "It's our fault but we move 100,000 people a day and it's all done with paper," Dart said.

    Before Robbins was captured, federal and local law enforcement officers knocked on doors in Illinois and Indiana on Friday, including those of his friends and relatives, the sheriff's office said. The FBI and U.S. Marshals Service offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his apprehension.

    Robbins, a Gary, Ind., native, was serving a sentence for murder and weapons convictions out of Marion County in Indiana.

    Related:

    Killer hunted after being mistakenly released from jail

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  • Kansas catches double-murderer after prison break

    Santos Carrera-Morales, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder committed in 2007 in Sedgwick County, Kansas, a prisoner that escaped from a central Kansas jail before dawn on Wednesday. Authorities recaptured him on Friday.

    By Jason White, msnbc.com

    Updated 7:50 p.m. ET: A double-murderer who escaped Wednesday from a Kansas jail along with three other inmates was captured late Thursday, officials said Friday.


    Santos Carrera-Morales was taken into custody at 11:58 p.m CT Thursday night, according to spokesman Ben Gardner of the Kansas Highway Patrol. Carrera-Morales was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for a 2007 double-slaying.

    The Wichita Eagle reported that Carrera-Morales was captured in the town of Russell, about 80 miles from the Ottawa County Jail in the town of Minneapolis in central Kansas. Details of the capture were not immediately released.

    Two other fugitives were taken into custody earlier, and one, Eric James, was apprehended Friday evening in Omaha, Neb. The details of his capture were not immediately known.

    The inmates, armed with homemade knives, overpowered guards at the Kansas jail after complaining about a broken water line in the holding cell area, Ottawa County Sheriff Keith Coleman told The Salina Journal. Coleman said the inmates were able to open the cell doors and make their way outside. The guards suffered only minor injuries.

    The inmates had been held at the Ottawa County Jail because of state prison overcrowding when they escaped. After the incident, the 18 inmates still held at Ottowa were returned to a state facility in Ellsworth.

    Carrera-Morales was convicted of two counts of first-degree in 2008.

    The Kansas Corrections Department is reviewing its policy on inmate transfers to Ottawa County — one of four county jails that accommodates prisoners from overcrowded state facilities, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing corrections department spokesman Jeremy Barclay.

    "We are reassessing our jail placement in Ottawa County right now, just during this period," he told AP. "This is an interim step while the investigation is taking place."

    Coleman said the four inmates had been in the same area of the jail for less than a week before the escape, the report said.

    "They didn't have a lot of time to plan," he said. "We have different rooms in the facility, and they weren't all together for a very long time."

    Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/20/2304257/jail-escapee-convicted-murderer.html#storylink=cpy

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  • Convicted murderer who was accidentally freed has been caught

    Thomas Aaron Whitlock, a 31-year-old convicted of second-degree murder in 2009.

    By msnbc.com news services

     

    A convicted murderer who was accidentally released from custody while awaiting a court appearance in South Carolina on Tuesday has been apprehended, the York County Sheriff's Office said on Saturday.

    Thomas Aaron Whitlock, a 31-year-old with an "extensive" criminal history, was let go Monday afternoon from the York County Detention Center -- which only realized the mistake nearly 24 hours later when arrangements were being made to return him to prison in Windsor, N.C., according to the Sheriff's Office.

    "I could go into a lot of discussions that we've had as to how this took place," Sheriff Bruce Bryant told The Charlotte Observer. "We deal with thousands and thousands of prisoners each year, book close to 7,000 prisoners each year. There has been a mistake made."

    On Saturday, the Sheriff's Office announced Whitlock had been caught on East Camp Wisdom Road in Dallas, Texas, at the home belonging to the mother of his child. He surrendered without incident, according to a statement on the Sheriff Office's website.

    "Members of the York County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies have worked around-the-clock to capture Whitlock since he was released in error on February 27, 2012," the statement added.

    South Carolina records show Whitlock had previously been convicted on burglary and robbery. He was arrested in April 2010 by FBI agents who found him hiding under a home in Dallas, Texas, and he was later sentenced to between 11 and 14 years in the 2009 death of Jamie Thompson in Charlotte, the Charlotte Observer said.

    Whitlock also has drug possession charges in his criminal history, which the Sheriff's Office described to the Charlotte Observer as "extensive."

    The Sheriff’s Office said it had worked with other law enforcement agencies and the North Carolina Division of Adult Correction to find the fugitive. Bryant also has launched an investigation into how Whitlock was released.

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  • Reward offered for released Mississippi murderer

    Police are offering a reward to help track down a convicted murderer who was pardoned by former Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood joins NewsNation to discuss the situation.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Mississippi's attorney general is asking for the public’s help in tracking down a convicted killer who vanished weeks ago after being pardoned by former Governor Haley Barbour.

    “I hate the fact that our former governor has unleashed this guy on the U.S.,” Attorney General Jim Hood told msnbc.com on Thursday. “I equate this to having a manhunt with one arm tied behind my back.”

    Authorities began looking for Ozment after the former inmate did not appear on Monday at a court hearing related to the pardons. Hood said he has offered an unspecified cash reward for information regarding Ozment's whereabouts.

    Barbour, a former Republican National Committee chairman, sparked controversy by granting some 200 pardons, commutations and suspensions, generating debate about how much power a governor should have to pardon criminals convicted of serious crimes.

    Barbour has defended his clemency decisions and said he was confident they were all valid and blamed political opponents for much of the controversy.

    Ozment, 40, had been serving a life sentence for the 1993 robbery and shooting death of a store clerk in northwest Mississippi. He was one of five prisoners who had worked at the governor's mansion who saw their life prison terms lifted after receiving full pardons by Barbour.

    Hood is seeking to void most of the pardons granted by Barbour because not enough public notice was given in the communities where the crimes were committed. He received a court order to temporarily block the pardons.

    A judge allowed the five freed men, including Ozment, to remain out of prison while the matter was pending but required them to report daily to authorities. Ozment was the only one who has not done so, Hood said.

    Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 3.

    Hood asked anyone with information to call a confidential hotline at 1-800-281-4418.

    Msnbc.com's Sevil Omer and Reuters contributed to this report.

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