Florence prison escapees still on the loose
Authorities on the lookout for two men who escaped from Florence prison over the weekend were doing door-todoor searches in the area in an attempt to find them, officials announced during a news conference on Monday.
John B. Charpiot and David T. Harmon escaped from “medium custody” in the south unit of the prison sometime between 4 and 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, according to officials. The men, who lived in the same housing unit, breached the prison’s fence line by using tools they retrieved from the prison’s tool room, officials said.
Despite cold and stormy weather conditions across the Valley on Monday, search efforts for the men continued with a concentration on areas immediately surrounding the prison and within several miles of the prison, Arizona Department of Public Safety
Director Col. Heston Silbert said during the news conference.
“We do have some concerns that they are, in fact, in the area,” Silbert said, adding that $35,000 for each man was being offered to anyone with information leading to their capture.
“The chief area of concern is this: being that we haven’t received a great deal of information about the subjects at this time, that they could be holed up someplace,” he continued.
DPS asks people near Florence to be on high alert for escapees
Silbert said multiple door-to-door searches were conducted on Sunday at homes in the area of the prison and that those searches would intensify on Monday. He asked residents in the area to report suspicious or “out of norm” behavior, such as a neighbor not being around or a coworker not coming to work for a period of time.
“We are not trying to infringe on anyone’s privacy, they’re trying to ensure the community’s safety,” Silbert said of the door-to-door searches.
Roadblocks and car searches in the area also remained in place, according to Silbert. Various local authorities, the Arizona Department of Transportation and U.S. Marshals Service were assisting in search efforts, officials said.
1 man has connections to Mexico
Silbert said it was difficult to discern how far the men had traveled by Monday and whether they were within or outside the search perimeter. He added that officials have since learned Harmon has connections to Mexico and that it was being looked into.
“We really have to exercise strategies to attack both angles of the search,” Silbert
said.
“We obviously get concerned when we hear there’s connections to Mexico and the possibility of going into Mexico,” he continued. “So we really have to be balanced in our effort and in our attempt to try to get them.”
Silbert noted the men may not look exactly as they appear in their photos distributed by the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry on Sunday.
“Charpiot may have shaved his beard. They’ve certainly got different clothing by now, they are not running around in their orange corrections uniform,” he said.
Officials investigating possibility of procedural failures, assistance
Charpiot was imprisoned in 2011 after he was convicted in Maricopa County of molestation of a child and sexual abuse and sentenced to 35 years, the department said.
Harmon was imprisoned in 2012 after he was convicted in Maricopa County of kidnapping and second-degree burglary charges and sentenced to serve 100 years, the department said.
In 1992, Harmon was convicted in Maricopa County of escape in the second degree, according to the department’s online records. He’s had multiple convictions since 1987 including attempt to commit sexual assault and attempt to commit kidnapping, records show.
An investigation into the escape was ongoing, including whether there were any procedural failures or if the men were assisted, Frank Strada, deputy director of Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry, said at the news conference.
A reward of $35,000 for each man was being offered for information leading to their capture, officials said. Anyone with information should call Silent Witness at 480-948-6377 or 480-8378446 for Spanish.