The Bismarck Tribune
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Convicted murderer Richard Lee McNair - who escaped from the U.S. Penitentiary in Pollock by hiding in a mail cart - was sentenced Monday in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court to 30 months at the super-max facility in Florence, Colo.
He faced a maximum sentence on the escape charge of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Part of the plea agreement McNair signed earlier this year stated that prosecutors would recommend to U.S. District Judge Dee Drell that the sentence for escape run concurrently with the life sentence McNair is serving in the federal prison system on a North Dakota state murder conviction.
But Drell sentenced McNair to 30 months to be served consecutively, meaning at the end of any other sentences.
Initially McNair pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty, he said in a letter to Drell dated Jan. 26, so that he could be transferred to a super-maximum security prison.
McNair escaped from the Pollock prison on April 5, 2006, and was on the run for more than 18 months.
Soon after his escape McNair talked his way out of arrest when confronted by a Ball police officer.
He was caught Oct. 25 in Canada during a traffic stop and returned to Louisiana on Nov. 9.
In McNairs letter to Drell, he explained that the Pollock facility is “not designed to house super-maximum custody prisoners long term.”
In the handwritten letter, he also stated he cannot exercise properly in the detention cell in Pollock, where he is being held 24 hours a day with the lights on.
“Please allow me to be transferred ... to the super-max in Colorado,” McNair wrote. “That facility is designed to provide the security and long-term care my custody require(s).”
Copyright 2008 The Bismarck Tribune, a division of Lee Enterprises