Escaping prisoner shot to death
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on January 23, 2008 2:17 PM
A man convicted of second-degree murder in Stokes County in 2001 was shot and killed after scaling two fences at a Johnston County correctional facility, a spokesman said.
N.C. Department of Correction spokesman Mike Stater said Adelino V. Najera, 33, of Honduras, had escaped from the Johnston Correctional Institute on U.S. 70.
"He climbed over two fences, and that was at the paint plant, which is beside the prison," Stater said. "I don't know what kind of wire was over the top of those fences."
After scaling the dual barricades, correctional officers ordered Najera to stop, and he did not, Stater said.
"They opened fire, which they are allowed to do under N.C. law," Stater said.
The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident.
The paint plant from which Najera escaped is a prison "enterprise facility," the spokesman said.
"Everything that's made at an enterprise plant is for sale to state agencies, or for our own use in prisons," Stater said.
Stater said it was not clear how Najera was able to climb the two fences succesffully.
"How he got over, I don't know, I just don't know -- okay?" Stater said. "That's where an S.B.I. official would have to give that information."
Stokes County is near North Carolina's border with Virginia, just north of Winston-Salem.