BON AIR, Va. — Authorities said a woman who worked at a Virginia juvenile correctional facility was accused of helping two inmates escape.
Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center employee Destiny L. Harris, 23, of Chesterfield County, was charged Tuesday with two counts of aiding with the escape of a juvenile.
United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force took her into custody. She is is being held at the Chesterfield County Jail.
It’s unclear what role Harris may have had in the escape.
Authorities said 20-year-old Jabar A. Taylor of Spotsylvania County and 18-year-old Rashad E. Williams of D.C. escaped from the Bon Air facility in Chesterfield County Monday. The facility is a secure detention center, south of Richmond.
A news release from the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice describes what happened:
The residents used a cord of undetermined origin to choke the security staff member, who briefly lost consciousness. They took the staff member’s keys which they used to exit the unit, and then escaped through a hole that had been cut in the facility’s perimeter security fence. They then boarded and left in a vehicle that appears to have been waiting for them. It was unclear whether the residents cut the hole in the fence, or whether the hole had been pre-cut. The staff was treated and released from a nearby hospital emergency room.”
“This is the first escape we’ve had at Bon Air in over 20 years,” said Department of Juvenile Justice Director Valerie Boykin. “We are very concerned about how this happened and will fully investigate the circumstances and ensure that appropriate action is taken.”
Taylor had been convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and aggravated malicious assault. Williams had been convicted of malicious wounding and robbery.
Both were due to be transferred to an adult correctional facility when they turned 21.
They are still on the run and may have fled to another state. Anyone with information should call 911 or the Virginia State Police at 804-553-3445.
See photos of Taylor and Williams.
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