Posted on 07/16/2005 10:14:36 AM PDT by WSGilcrest
Two inmates whose bodies were found in a Trimble County landfill Thursday were trying to escape from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, a state official said yesterday.
Avery C. Roland of Stanton and Michael Talbot of Louisville had on multiple layers of clothing, with garbage bags between the layers, said John Rees, commissioner of the Department of Corrections.
Rees said investigators reviewed phone calls and correspondence involving the inmates to uncover the plot.
"They were dead before they left the institution," Rees said yesterday. "In all probability, they were dead before they left the secure perimeter."
State trooper Greg Larimore acknowledged that "everyone's big theory" is that the men were killed by the hydraulic crushing device that compacts the trash. But he said state police aren't ruling anything out -- including the possibility that the inmates' bodies were dumped in the trash to conceal another crime -- until autopsy results are in.
Autopsies were performed on both men yesterday, but it could be next week or later before the cause of death is officially determined.
The department and state police are jointly investigating the escape and deaths. Chris Gilligan, a spokesman for the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, said a critical incident review team would be named early next week. The team of two to four Corrections Department officials will make recommendations on how to prevent similar escape attempts from occurring.
Talbot and Roland climbed into a dumpster sometime after 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, Rees said. They eluded the medium-security prison's guards and video cameras. The truck traveled from the prison to the landfill about 8 a.m.
The prison's trash is compacted five times before it is deposited at the landfill, including once outside the gates, Rees said.
"No one can live through that," he said.
The body of Roland, 26, was found Thursday morning at the landfill, about 10 miles north of the Oldham County prison. Talbot, 24, was found later in the day.
According to published reports, a system set up to notify the prison's neighbors about escapes failed to alert them. A Corrections Department spokes-woman attributed the problem to human error.
Roland was serving four years for unlawful imprisonment, sexual misconduct and assault for grabbing and fondling a University of Kentucky student. He was awaiting trial on charges of raping and sodomizing a 17-year-old Madison County girl in 2003.
Talbot was serving a 10-year sentence for wanton endangerment, theft by unlawful taking, and fleeing and evading police.
I'm sure the weepy Liberals will now demand that all trash compactors have "human habitat" zones in them to prevent this sort of "tragedy" from happening again.
How appropriate that they were wearing garbage bags at their demise.
Did they think the layering would keep them from being crushed? *boggles*
There is no entrance exam for a life of crime.
May not necessarily be candidates for the Darwin award - IFF they were murdered by inmates and put into the trash cans to conceal the crime...
My thought was that the garbage bags were worn to protect the other layer of clothes from the mess in the dumpster.
A high-school buddy, FBI agent for fifteen years, once told me: "Andy, there are very few criminal masterminds."
I wonder if these turds had a crush on each other
Good riddance.
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