Officials Say Convict Was Mistakenly Released From SoCal Prison
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prison officials say a state convict has been released by mistake.
Wasco State Prison spokesman Henry Cervantez said in a statement that police told prison officials Thursday that 21-year-old Larry Darnell Howard had been wrongly set free Wednesday from a county jail, where he had been held since March 26 so he could attend court proceedings in Los Angeles.
The statement says the Sheriff's Department released Howard despite an active hold in place by the state corrections department.
Howard was in prison at Wasco serving a two-year sentence for first-degree burglary and was not scheduled to be up for parole until November.
Corrections officials say law enforcement is treating the accidental release as an escape, and have said anyone who sees Howard should call 911.
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