Vincent Hilario ran, but he couldn’t hide. Hilario, incarcerated at Kaua`i Community Correctional Center, escaped the facility on March 15 by scaling a 20-foot fence that surrounds the recreational yard. He fled into pastures north of the facility but was
Vincent Hilario ran, but he couldn’t hide.
Hilario, incarcerated at Kaua`i
Community Correctional Center, escaped the facility on March 15 by scaling a
20-foot fence that surrounds the recreational yard.
He fled into pastures
north of the facility but was recaptured in 45 minutes by corrections employee
Jon Miyajima.
For his trouble, Hilario was convicted of escape in the
second degree after a Circuit Court trial by jury Tuesday at the Kaua`i County
Courthouse.
The jury was out approximately 30 minutes before returning its
guilty verdict.
Prosecuting Attorney Mike Soong, who tried the case, said
this was the first of two attempted escapes this year at the corrections
facility. The other escapee has yet to come to trial.
Hilario, previously
convicted of assault, was serving a parole violation at the time of his escape.
He was demanding a transfer to a jail on Oahu “because he said they had
more (educational) programs, but they wouldn’t take him,” Soong said. “His
defense (in his latest trial) was that he wasn’t really trying to escape, he
just wanted to get (the authorities’) attention.”
Hilario was represented
by deputy public defender James Itamura.
Ironically, Hilario, who faces a
maximum of five more years for the escape, probably will go to the Halawa
prison on Oahu now.
“Eventually he’ll be transferred to Halawa’s high-risk
(wing) so he won’t be eligible for any programs,” Soong said.
He said
prisoner escapees are prosecuted “as a matter of public policy.”
Kaua’i
averages less than one escape a year, Soong estimated. “There are more on Oahu,
where somebody goes out on a furlough and they just don’t return,” he
said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252)
and [dwilken@pulitzer.net]
