FRENCH CAMP, Calif. – The Latest on the escape of a man from a psychiatric hospital in Hawaii and his capture in California (all times local):
12:40 p.m.
A man who walked out of a psychiatric hospital in Hawaii and made it to California before being captured says he’s surprised his escape worked.
Randall Saito spoke to The Associated Press at a jail near Stockton, California, before a Friday court appearance.
Saito left the hospital in suburban Honolulu on Sunday, got a taxi to the airport and took a charter plane to Maui. From there, he caught a flight to San Jose.
Saito says he used a fake ID and was expecting to be nabbed on almost every leg of the journey.
He was caught Wednesday when a taxi driver in Stockton saw a TV report about the escape and realized Saito had been in her cab.
He was committed to the hospital after being found not guilty of a woman’s death by reason of insanity.
Saito says he’s contrite for the nearly 40-year-old killing but that he faked mental illness to get out of a prison sentence.
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12:03 a.m.
A man who acknowledges killing a woman nearly 40 years ago says he escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital to prove that he could behave properly out in the community.
Randall Saito tells San Francisco television station KGO-TV in a jail interview that the Hawaii State Hospital wouldn’t give him a chance. He says each time he applied for release, officials made him “sound like a bad guy.”
So he plotted an escape, which he carried out Sunday.
He walked out of the hospital, got a taxi to the airport and took a chartered plane to Maui, where he caught another flight to San Jose, California.
Saito was captured Wednesday in Stockton after authorities got a tip from a taxi driver.
He’s scheduled to appear in court for a hearing Friday.
