"I told a detective what happened, that he was coming back to Colorado on his own,'' she said. "He just said, `Bless Ricky's little heart.' ''
Convict shown door by mistake
Prisoner freed in Stark gets on bus to finish Colo. sentence
Beacon Journal staff writer
After two days on a cross-country bus, a man who was released by mistake from the Stark County Jail finally found someone who would put him back behind bars.
In fact, Ricky Lee Claycomb was given a police escort for the last few miles to the Colorado prison where he still has two years to serve on a robbery charge.
``He was nice enough to call ahead,'' said Katherine Sanguinetti, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. ``He told us he was driving in with a relative and that he had alerted the media.
``I think he was afraid we would shoot him or something, but it wasn't his fault Ohio let him go.''
Claycomb, 37, was extradited to Stark County from the Fremont Correctional Facility in Colorado last October. He was charged with the 1994 rape of a Canton woman because records in a national database indicated his semen matched a sample collected from the woman.
But on Tuesday, Claycomb was acquitted by a Stark County common pleas jury after evidence was presented that he had consensual sex with the woman a day before she was assaulted.
But instead of returning Claycomb to Colorado to serve the remainder of his sentence on the robbery conviction, Stark jail authorities showed him the door.
Claycomb called his mom in Colorado for help.
``He told them at the jail that he was supposed to be taken back to Colorado,'' said Jill Claycomb. ``He said they told him he was done in Canton and it was his problem to get back.''
The Stark County Sheriff's Department did not return calls for comment. A news release issued Friday stated Claycomb's mistaken release is under investigation.
Jill Claycomb sent her son a bus ticket home and called Colorado prison officials.
A short while later, her phone rang. It was Stark County looking for their lost charge.
``I told a detective what happened, that he was coming back to Colorado on his own,'' she said. ``He just said, `Bless Ricky's little heart.' ''
After the two-day bus trip to Colorado, Claycomb stayed home long enough to have his mother's oatmeal and peaches for breakfast and a pizza for lunch. Then he rode back to prison with his brother, Troy, who took along his wife and 3-year-old son.
Authorities had a few anxious hours when the Claycombs' three-hour trip stretched to five because Troy took a wrong turn through the mountains, Jill Claycomb said.
``It was a nightmare to get Ricky back to jail... I told my husband it was just like a movie.''
Reach Kymberli Hagelberg at 330-996-3038 or khagelberg@thebeaconjournal.com