He eluded capture for almost six days, but ultimately police tracked down 28-year old David Watson very close to where their search began.
"At about 9:40pm last night, tactical officers while in the area that we'd been checking earlier in the day were able to use night vision equipment and in about a 20-inch diameter drainage pipe located the suspect," said Howard County Police Chief Gary L. Gardner.
Much of the credit goes to a worker who spotted the escaped prisoner hiding on the grounds of the nearby American Wood Fibers plant in Jessup.
General Manager Mark Taeger says the inmate had apparently been hiding beneath their property in an underground drainage pipe.
"One of our operators was over here on the back of the property,” said Taeger, “At one end there's a culvert that runs underneath the property line here and he happened to be there and saw the guy down in the culvert, itself, and notified management who immediately called the police department."
Watson bolted when police arrived, but they discovered bags of wood product the escapee had used to sleep on inside his subterranean hide away.
Watson appeared via a closed circuit television before a district court judge on Thursday and refused a public defender.
As the judge considered sending him back to Clifton T. Perkins for a competency review, Watson became emotional saying, "They're trying to hurt me there. They're trying to cut my head off."
Howard County State’s Attorney Dario Broccolino says law enforcers don’t want to move him around any more than they have to, because of his propensity to escape.
"Once the evaluation is done, then we'll let, in truth let, Wicomico County and Delaware decide what they want to do with him," said Broccolino.
Watson is already serving a sentence of more than a hundred years for attempted murder in Delaware, but thus far, he has been found incompetent to stand trial for trying to murder law enforcers in Wicomico County.
He now faces additional escape and assault charges here.
