Sept. 17, 2004 – In a situation that echoes an escape from Golden Grove Correctional Facility in June, two inmates escaped from the facility on Wednesday night. One was quickly apprehended and the other remains on the loose.
In the June escape, Manuel Melendez remained free for three months before being apprehended on Monday. Suhmied Morris was apprehended within hours after the two had cut a hole in a fence and took off across a field.(See "Citizens Credited With Helping to Recapture Escapee").
The two escaping on Wednesday were Jason "Marco" Stevens, 38, and Julio Garcia, 46. The escape was around 6 p.m., and officials are releasing few details concerning it.
According to Sgt. Thomas Hannah, spokesman for the V.I. Police Department, his department was notified that two men were seen running across a field adjacent to the correctional facility Wednesday evening. Officers went to the facility and were informed that two inmates were missing.
Garcia was apprehended about six hours later along Melvin H. Evans Highway. He could have been headed toward William's Delight, his last known address.
Stevens is black male, light complexion, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 155 pounds, and sporting a beard, according to Hannah. His last known residence was a vacant condo in Peter's Farm, Christiansted. Stevens, a St. Thomas native, is known to frequent the Pickard Building area of Christiansted.
Garcia was incarcerated for sexual offenses. Stevens had been charged in connection with a robbery of a jewelry store on Strand Street in Christiansted.
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