By Michaele Niehaus
The Hawk Eye
BURLINGTON, Iowa — A man sentenced to five years in prison for firing into a North Seventh Street home in May 2017 now faces felony escape charges.
Javontae Roman Kessee, 26, 1112 Corse St., was arrested early Sunday on the 300 block of Shields Street after fleeing from a traffic stop and giving officers a false name.
Kessee had escaped Sept. 24 from the Burlington Residential Correctional Facility, 835 Valley St., where he had been housed partway through a five-year sentence for going armed with intent after firing shots into a home at 617 N. Seventh St. May 25, 2017.
According to court documents, a residential officer saw Kessee walking down the street on his way to work as though Kessee was signed out of the facility. A review of facility cameras showed Kessee had signed out to go to the yard area of the facility, but had not signed out to leave the facility. He went to the yard for a short time before walking though the parking lot toward the front door of the facility.
“Once the defendant reached the spot where he would normally turn toward the front door of the facility, he began to run west on Valley and off the facility property,” residential supervisor Nick Baker said in the affidavit.
Kessee did not request to leave or submit furloughs required to do so. His whereabouts were unknown until he was taken into custody at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday.
Kessee’s original charges included going armed with intent, assault while participating in a felony and reckless use of a firearm, but Des Moines County prosecutors dropped the assault and reckless use of a firearm charges in exchange for a guilty plea for going armed with intent.
Kessee’s brother, Charles Kessee, 29, also was charged in the May 2017 incident. Witnesses reported two groups of people had exchanged gunshots, but no further arrests were made in relation to the incident.
Charles Kessee had escaped in February 2017 from the halfway house, where he was being housed on an unrelated drug conviction and was considered an escapee at the time of the May 25 incident. The felony escape charge was dropped after he agreed to plead guilty to the aiding and abetting charge.
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(c)2018 The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa)