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Saturday, February 27, 2010

Inmate Cons Guards, Walks Out Of MD Prison



BALTIMORE (AP) -- A man serving three life terms conned his way out of a Baltimore prison with help from his cellmate, an extraordinary escape that raised questions about Maryland's procedures for releasing inmates.

Raymond T. Taylor, 26, of New York, successfully posed as a cellmate he never should have been paired with in the first place -- a man who happened to resemble him closely, corrections officials said Friday. He escaped Thursday afternoon and was recaptured Friday morning in West Virginia.

Taylor was convicted in 2005 of what prosecutors called the attempted "execution-style" slayings of his ex-girlfriend and her two teenage daughters. All three victims survived gunshot wounds to the head.

Taylor and cellmate William Johnson swapped photo identification cards Thursday afternoon, and when Johnson's name was called, Taylor answered, officials said. Four correctional officers checked the photo and inmate identification number -- which Taylor recited when asked -- and allowed him to walk out of the windowless, bunker-like Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center.

"There was a striking resemblance between the two," Assistant Commissioner of Correction Felicia Hinton said Friday.


Mug shots released by the corrections department revealed some facial similarities but many differences between the two men. Taylor wears his hair in long braids, while Johnson's is short. Corrections officials said Taylor hid his hair under a hat when he was released and noted that the men were the same height, with similar builds.

More from The Washington Times story HERE.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FOUR guards compared the I.D. photo to the face and let this guy slip by? Incredible.

dinosaur said...

The only resemblance I see is that they both look STUPID.

Anonymous said...

Resemblance? I bet every inmate would love to have that guard.

Anonymous said...

when Inmaes are released you not only check their ID's but you also check their fingerprints. They are supposed to be fingerprinted at time of release and compare to the set that were taken when entering Divisiion of Correction, since you should of had the basefile of the one being released in your possession. So why were they not compared? These things occur because Management never promote Professionalism only Butt Kissers / Good Ole Boys. They get rid of or harass the ones that do their jobs.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Ms. Hinton got a better job recently. Here's what's on the DOC website:

Felicia Hinton
Warden

Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services

Maryland Reception Diagnostic & Classification Center

550 E Madison Street

Baltimore, MD 21202-0000

410-878-3500

Anonymous said...

Was this a DT story? Wonder if it was too sensitive an issue with the new prison about to be built in Princess Anne.

smitty240 said...

One really strange thing about this article.....West Virginia doesn't generally "recapture" escapees. Must have been stopped for a traffic violation first. That's it, profiling got 'im.

Anonymous said...

First of all, having fairly new quards on tiers/pods are the reason for this. They don't know who's who. You should have the same quards working those posts. They should know them all by face! I used to work in a prison, and I knew them all by face. Supervisors need to stop putting new people on these posts. Sure they need to know all of the posts, but keep the same people in a unit.