State v. Watts

HILL, Judge.

Defendant escaped from the New Hanover county unit of the Department of Correction on 1 November 1981. He was apprehended thirteen days later.

Defendant’s evidence tends to show that he was forced to flee the New Hanover prison because of a well-founded fear that he would suffer serious bodily injury and possibly death at the hands of a Department of Correction officer who worked there. Defendant testified he had been assaulted by the officer and received medical treatment for his injuries; that the officer had threatened to kill him; that defendant had reported the problem to the…