Enfield Prison Escapee Gets Additional Sentence

ENFIELD, CT — An inmate who escaped from the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in early January, only to be captured more than a thousand miles away 10 days later, has been sentenced to four additional years in prison.

Jerry Mercado, 26, had escaped from the medium-security prison on Shaker Road on Jan. 7 by clinging to the underside of a truck that was leaving the prison grounds through an unstaffed gate, authorities said.

He was on the loose until Jan. 17, when he was tracked to a Chevron gas station in Canton, Ga., situated 1,036 miles away from the prison, according to Google Maps.

Mercado had been serving an eight-year sentence, suspended after three, stemming from his Aug. 2016 conviction on charges of third-degree burglary, interfering with an officer and stealing a firearm, following an incident in Hartford in February of that year, judicial records show.

He had been scheduled for release in Jan. 2019 on that conviction, but was sentenced Oct. 11 to four additional years in prison on first-degree escape charges, according to judicial records.

Photo courtesy of Cherokee County Sheriff's Office

To sign up for free Enfield news alerts and more, click here.