Juvenile Who Escaped Jail Van to be Tried as Adult

By Sam Thrift Thursday, July 21, 2011

One of the two juveniles accused of escaping custody while being transported from the York-Poquoson Courthouse to the Merrimac Juvenile Detention Center Facility in May will be tried as an adult.

The York-Poquoson Circuit Court grand jury indicted 17-year-old Tara Blair Tuesday on a felony charge of escaping a juvenile facility with force and a misdemeanor for obstruction of justice with force, York-Poquoson Commonwealth’s Attorney Eileen Addison said.

According to Addison, the other accused juvenile, 15-year-old Kaleil Harris, is being charged as a juvenile.

“Usually we can’t give any information about juvenile defendants at all,” she said. “But there was an exception made in this case because when they escaped their names were released.”

Blair and Harris were in court the morning of May 19 for a hearing on felony property charges. When the pair was on their way back to the juvenile facility around 12:30 p.m., one of the juveniles was able to crawl through the partition that separates the driver from those in custody, surprise and overpower the driver. The driver, a transportation officer for the Merrimac Center, was uninjured.

To help in their apprehension of the suspects, the York County Sheriff’s Department sent out a press release with the juveniles' names and photos.

The York County Sheriff’s Department apprehended the juveniles around 6:30 p.m. the day they escaped after they were spotted walking along Runaway Lane near the Edgehill neighborhood off Route 17, across from York High School. Captain Jim Richardson of the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office said both suspects ran when they saw the police, who gave chase and caught the pair.

A tentative trial date of August 16 has been set for Blair.