Two days after a stunning series of errors allowed a convicted murderer to walk out of a Chicago jail where he did not need to be in the first place, police recaptured the man at a northern Illinois home where he was found watching TV.
Steven L. Robbins, 44, put up no resistance Friday night as police burst through the door of a townhome in Kankakee, about 60 miles south of Chicago, said Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Frank Bilecki.
“He was in the living room or kitchen area watching TV, taken by total surprise,” Bilecki said, adding that it appears the homeowner might know an acquaintance of Robbins. Before the arrest, a surveillance team spotted Robbins wearing a curly wig while carrying groceries from a vehicle into the home, the sheriff’s office said.
By Saturday afternoon, Robbins was back in the Indiana State Prison, where he was serving a 60-year sentence for murder.
The prisoner’s mistaken release focused attention on an antiquated corner of the criminal justice system that still relies extensively on paper documents instead of computers in moving detainees and keeping tabs on their court status.
The episode prompted promises of change, but also some finger-pointing.
“We’re not ducking the fact we dropped the ball. We made mistakes,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Friday. “The public deserves much more. We’re going to find out what went wrong here.”
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Source: BlackAmericaWeb
