Escaped inmate captured after being injured in hit-and-run 300 feet from Hawaiian jail
It wasn’t a great escape for this jailbird.
An inmate on the run was seriously injured in a hit-and-run as he fled down the highway after scaling the razor-wire fence of a Hawaiian jail.
Matthew J. Ornellas Jr., 33, who was serving time in the Kauai Community Correctional Center on a drug charge, allegedly escaped the facility around 1 a.m. Friday morning and ran into oncoming traffic on Kuhio Highway.
Ornellas made it about 300 feet before getting hit by a driver who fled the scene after making a U-turn, according to police and local reports.
He is hospitalized in serious condition in police custody while authorities search for the driver.
The Kauai Community Correctional Center, which sits on the eastern coast of the island, is a medium- and minimum-security facility. Ornellas was under minimum security, according to a spokesperson for the Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The 130-bed lockup offers education, substance abuse treatment, religious, arts and work programs, according to its website, as well as a Lifetime Stand Program, which provides a “paramilitary regimen of marching, drill exercises, physical training, education, and community outreach.”
A press release from January noted the challenges posed by “the state’s aging and inefficiently constructed correctional facilities” and an “inability to remedy chronic safety or security concerns.”
With Post wires