….Caught 27 years After Prison Escape

I’m surprised that this story did not get more attention. And I’m even more curious as to how this unfolds and what happens to Steve Johnson Raymond Scully.

Last week, the Austin American-Statesman reported the story of 52 year-old Steve Johnson, who had just finished working another 13 hour shift at Dell Inc. when he was pulled over for having an expired registration sticker and no inspection sticker.

Johnson and his family moved to Austin 10 years ago after his wife got a job in the high-tech industry (engineer).

Johnson maintained computer databases at a state agency for several years before getting a contract job with Dell in 2001. Dell hired him full time in November.

“It’s been a real normal life,” Johnson said. “I got married, had a family and worked. I did everything anybody else does.”

Well, Johson’s life was real normal except for one small detail—the secret he had kept for nearly 30 years was about to unravel.

You see, Steve Johnson’s real name is Raymond Scully. A fact unknown to even his own 22 year old daughter. And in 1977, Raymond Scully escaped from a North Carolina prison, where he was serving a 10-year sentence on drug charges.

On the way to jail, Johnson/Scully told the officer that he had fled prison one year into his 10-year sentence, married, had a daughter and built a good life. He said he moved to Austin a decade ago and had kept his secret from most everyone he met for nearly three decades.

He will remain in an Austin jail, as North Carolina authorities said they plan to extradite him in the next few days.

In the Statesman’s interview with Johnson he said he thought officials long ago forgot his case and had no interest in sending him back to prison — the thought of going back frightens him.

“I think I’ll be easy prey,” said Johnson, unshaven and dressed in a gray and black jumpsuit.

Here’s an excerpt from the story…go read the entire thing…it has “made-for-television movie” written all over it.

Johnson was convicted in June 1975 for selling drugs. He said Wednesday that the verdict against him was based on false information by two police informants.

Days later, Johnson escaped again with several other inmates. He said Wednesday that the group was on a prison bus and that he and other prisoners kicked out its back door and fled.

“I just jumped over a fence and ran,” Johnson said. “I went through a swamp, and I just left.”

He said he hitchhiked to Phoenix, where he got construction jobs. He said he started using the name Steve Johnson, which he picked “out of the blue,” and made up a new Social Security number.

He also met and married Bonnie, and they had a daughter, Jamie Lee, who is now 22. Both live in Austin and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The couple later moved from Phoenix to Flagstaff, then to Massachusetts, where his wife attended school to become an engineer, Johnson said. He said he got a job as a vocational counselor at a mental facility.

Johnson said he never told his daughter about his past. He worried from behind bars Wednesday how she would find out and what she would think.

Huling [the rookie arresting officer], who joined the department in June 2003 and is assigned an evening patrol shift in North Central Austin, said after the technician told Huling that the fingerprints matched, Johnson asked if he could go home. Huling told him that he couldn’t.

Once they arrived at the jail, Huling said he escorted Johnson inside and handed him over to a Travis County corrections officer.

As he walked away, Huling said he looked Johnson in the eye and wished him luck.

This is an interesting case. After breaking out of prison, it looks like Johnson has led an honest, good life; he appears to have become a responsible and contributing member of society. On the other hand, he is an escaped convict, who still owes the state of North Carolina 9 more years on the original sentence, and possibly more years tacked on for the escape.

I hope there is leniency for Johnson. I hope that he has a smart and compassionate judge. A judge capable of judging the life Johnson has lived over the last 30 years.

I usually take a pretty hard stand against crime and criminals.

But in Johnson’s case, I hope they let him go home. Give him probation. Give him community service. But let him go home to the wife, daughter, and life that he has made an honest go of.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005 | Trackback |