Orange County sheriff opens up about prison escape in Hillsborough

HILLABOROUGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- If Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood had to do it over again, he would've called Maleah Williams' family sooner.

"I beat myself up because I didn't reach out to them early on and tell them, 'Hey, this has happened. Are you guys still safe?'" Blackwood told ABC11.

Blackwood said his daughter had gone to school and was close friends with a member of the Williams family.

Maleah, 1, was killed in 2015 in Chapel Hill. The man tried and convicted for that crime was Ramone Alston -- the same man who escaped from a prison transport van outside UNC Hillsborough Hospitals a week ago.

"If I've learned anything it all it's to be a little more cognizant of what's going on outside my periphery when those things happened and I hate it happened like it did," Blackwood said. "They didn't open it, it was opened for them."

Blackwood said he's perplexed as to why Alston was driven all the way from state prison in Bertie County to Hillsborough for treatment.

The Department of Adult Correction said it contracts with UNC Health to provide care and Alston was following up from a prior appointment with a GI doctor.

"I know there are hospitals between here and Bertie County that they drove by to get here," he said.

Blackwood said Alston ran away from the parking lot in Hillsborough last Tuesday but couldn't say specifically whether his alleged accomplice Jacobia Crisp picked him up there or helped him later.

The pair met after he was incarcerated, which is something he said he'd seen before.

"You have one person desperate for companionship," Blackwood said. "Another person is in desperation in need of some kind of approval and the two meet and they bonded," he said.

In the future, he'd like to see two things improved.

One of them is reducing how much inmates are moved once they are in custody namely for things such as court appearances.

"We place our deputies and our staff in jeopardy when we are moving inmates," he said. "We're also placing that inmate in jeopardy because if he jumps out and runs or she runs, there's a likelihood they'll get shot or hurt someone," Blackwood said.

The other is having a secure zone for corrections officers if they have to take an inmate to the hospital.

He said there are issues with that as well because you could be putting a nurse or doctor in harm's way.

"If he was intent on escaping and that opportunity didn't present itself in the parking lot, then he would be intent on finding an opportunity inside which might involve grabbing someone," Blackwood said.

ABC11 asked if he believed Alston had help on the inside. He didn't elaborate but said it's easy for corrections officers or anyone to get complacent, noting it is his job as a leader to remind his staff that these things can happen.

ABC11 also reached out to the Department of Adult Correction for further comment.