The Jefferson County Sheriff is blaming jailers for the escape of an accused killer. Marvin Isby spent more than two hours on the run before deputies captured him in a motel storeroom in Pine Bluff.
"This was strictly personnel problem negligence on our part." That's what Sheriff Robinson believes led to capital murder suspect Marvin Isby walking out of the Jefferson County Detention shortly before three a-m this morning.
Jailers let Isby out of his maximum security cell into the booking area to use the phone. "They should not have been able to make calls that's not in our policy, and this particular detainee was on lock down which means he had attempted to escape once before or done some type of action that warranted him being locked down," says Sheriff Robinson.
After the phone call Isby didn't go back to his cell and when guards weren't looking he pried open the booking door. He got outside by simply walking out the bay doors. While the door is notorious for not going up or down the Sheriff says that isn't the main problem. "We're trying to get those things taken care of but if the subject had not been out in the first place we wouldn't have had the problem."
Deputies eventually found Isby here hiding in a vacant room at the Crown Motel about five blocks from the jail. Manager Neil Gandhi talked to Isby before police showed up; he still can't get over the shock of being face to face with a man accused of murder. "To me I was scared as hell. To me so far I've been in the property two months and nothing like this has ever happened like this before," says Gandhi.
And if Sheriff Robinson gets his way, it will never happen again. He says they have policies in place for a reason and he's going to see to it they're followed. The Sheriff adds he's taken some administrative actions against three jail employees. He wouldn't say what the actions are but says no one has been fired; at this point the incident is still under investigation.
