No one has ever escaped from the state prison in Springfield, but a Vermont man gave it a good try before he was caught while scaling a fence, authorities say.
Dominick Ekroos, 20, is due in Windsor County Superior criminal court next month to face charges of attempted escape and unlawful mischief, Vermont State Police said in a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon.
The incident took place June 2 at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. The police statement revealed few details about the escape attempt, other than reporting that Ekroos did not make it outside the perimeter fence at the facility.
Al Cormier, chief of operations for the Vermont Department of Corrections, provided more information when reached Thursday. Cormier said Ekroos was inside the prison recreation yard when he was able to make it through a gate leading to the prison’s main yard.
In that main yard, according to Cormier, Ekroos tried to climb over a chain-link fence about 12 feet high and topped with barbed wire. Corrections officers spotted him before he could get over the fence, Cormier said, and took him into custody.
“They were able to stop [him] before he got over the top,” Cormier said.
“It was an opportune moment this individual took” advantage of, Cormier said of the escape attempt. “He made a valiant effort but was unsuccessful,”
The unlawful mischief charge stems from damage done to the gate leading out of the recreation yard as Ekroos squeezed through it.
Correctional officers did not use any weapons in taking Ekroos into custody, Cormier said.
“He was cut up a little bit trying to get to the top of the fence,” Cormier said of Ekroos, “but no injuries other than that to him or the staff.”
Ekroos was placed in segregated custody at the Springfield prison after the incident and later transferred to the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport, Cormier said.
Cormier said the corrections department has since worked with the state Department of Buildings and General Services to strengthen the recreation yard gate.
The Springfield prison, which has 370 beds, opened in October 2003. Cormier said no one has ever escaped.
Vermont Defender General Matthew Valerio, whose department oversees the state prisoners’ rights office, said Thursday he could not comment on the matter because he didn’t have specific details on what had occurred.
Ekroos has been in prison since May on an attempted second-degree murder charge, WCAX-TV reported at that time. Police allege Ekroos fired two rounds from a gun at an apartment door in Middlebury, striking and injuring another man inside. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and has been held without bail since, Addison County State’s Attorney Dennis Wygmans said Thursday.
The attempted murder charge was filed in Addison County because that is where Middlebury is located. The attempted escape charge is brought in Windsor County since Springfield is within that jurisdiction.