Escapee's speech cut short by judge
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
A day after he and two other prison escapees were captured in Windward O'ahu, Albert Batalona spoke out in court yesterday, apologizing to his son and saying that he had a constitutional right to speak.
But the most notorious of the Halawa prison escapees was cut short by District Judge Russel Nagata at his arraignment for second-degree escape. Also appearing in court were Warren Elicker, 25, and David Scribner, 20, who are charged with escaping from the high-security facility with Batalona on April 4.
BATALONA
SCRIBNER
Batalona wanted to take advantage of the media coverage and ignored the advice of Deputy Public Defender Martin Bento when he addressed the court.
"First, I'd like to apologize to my son," Batalona, 27, said before Nagata interrupted. The judge explained the court appearance was for an arraignment.
Before being taken out of court, Batalona said: "I got a lot more to say and I want to be heard."
Batalona is serving a life term without the possibility of parole for trying to kill a police officer in a July 1999 bank robbery.
While being led out of court, he and Elicker intentionally brushed shoulders. It was seen by corrections officials in court as a gesture of support or solidarity.
Other than that, Batalona, Elicker, and Scribner did not speak or make eye contact with one another in court.
Nagata scheduled preliminary hearings for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. for all three men and set bail at $500,000 for Batalona and $50,000 each for Elicker and Scribner.
The arraignment started at 8:37 a.m. and lasted about 10 minutes. By 8:55 a.m., the three men were on their way back to the Halawa Correctional Facility. The handcuffed and shackled inmates were under heavy guard and transported in separate vans.
Frank Lopez, state Corrections Division deputy director, said Batalona, Elicker and Scribner are being held in special holding unit isolation cells.
"They are under 24-hour surveillance and their movements are restricted," Lopez said.
The three will remain in isolation for an indefinite period, in keeping with the policy for all captured escapees.
The Department of Public Safety, meanwhile, is reviewing reports from an internal investigation of the April 4 escape from the Halawa maximum-security facility.
"We're investigating every aspect of the procedures in play — whether they were followed and whether they are accurate," state Public Safety Interim Director Jim Propotnick said yesterday at District Court.
According to an affidavit filed Monday by police seeking arrest warrants for Batalona, Elicker and Scribner, the three men broke through a hollow tile plumbing wall by carving through its grouting. The affidavit said the three men used "metal scraping objects."
Lopez said they tools appeared to be handmade and were "definitely contraband." He said the investigation will look at how the inmates were able to obtain and then conceal the illegal tools.
Prison officials placed the prison in lockdown after the escapes, and Lopez said each cell was searched. He said some contraband was recovered, although nothing as serious as a tool or weapon.
Once the three broke through the walls, they crawled and lowered themselves to a ground-level service room by following the path of plumbing lines, the police report said. They then "climbed through the opening of the unmanned main gate" to escape from the facility.
Police said the men carjacked a car at the Stadium Mall and drove to Hau'ula, where they ditched the vehicle and headed for the hills. The three escapees told police after their capture Thursday that they had planned on hiding in the hills above Hau'ula for six months until the manhunt died down and they could quietly walk out of the valley.
But their plans began to fall apart and the three left Hau'ula valley early Thursday.
Scribner was arrested as he walked along Kamehameha Highway in Punalu'u at 12:05 p.m.
Batalona was spotted on a city bus and police arrested him in Kane'ohe at 12:15.
At 12:29, police arrested Elicker, who was riding in a pickup truck near Castle High School.
None was armed when caught.
The driver of the truck, a 25-year-old North Shore man, was arrested on suspicion of hindering prosecution.
The convicts were booked on an escape charge carrying a prison term of up to five years.
State officials yesterday reopened the Hau'ula Loop and Ma'akua Ridge trails, which were closed for safety reasons while law enforcement officials conducted their search for the escapees.
Staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.
