
Parole board records paint violent picture of two escaped Sask. inmates
Published Thursday August 28th, 2008


REGINA - National Parole Board records paint dark, violent portraits of two of the five men on the run from the Regina Correctional Centre.
One man, Ryan John Agecoutay, may suffer from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and has admitted to using drugs and violence in order to "quiet the voices" in his head, say the documents.
The other man, Daniel Richard Wolfe, repeatedly had his prison release revoked for failing to abide by certain conditions, including staying away from known gang members.
The reports, obtained by The Canadian Press on Thursday, list both men as members of a street gang. Wolfe is further described as an "influential" and long-term gang member.
The name of the gang is deleted in the document, but several news reports have said it was the Indian Posse, a violent Western street gang.
The pair were part of a group of six inmates who busted out through a brick wall of the Regina provincial jail Sunday night. One man was quickly apprehended, and a manhunt continues for the remaining five, described by police as dangerous and possibly armed. Several of them face murder charges.
The others being sought are Preston Clarence Buffalocalf, 22; Cody Dillon Keenatch, 19 and James Joseph Pewean, 25.
Wolfe, 32, was in remand at the jail awaiting trial on two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder after a violent home invasion in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., in 2007.
Agecoutay, 25, who court records say also goes by the last name Bellegarde, was in custody charged with an aggravated assault after an attack on a man in north-central Regina in April 2007.
Only Wolfe and Agecoutay have federal prison records and parole board reports.
In 2001, Agecoutay was sentenced to three years and ten months for several charges relating to a violent home invasion.
According to the parole documents, Agecoutay and other masked men broke into a home in the middle of the night. While others were armed with baseball bats and metal clubs, Agecoutay used a handgun and threatened to kill two people in the home, including a young child. No one was injured but the home was damaged.
Months later, while in custody at an unnamed correctional facility, Agecoutay repeatedly phoned a co-accused in the case and threatened to "contract a hit" or kill the man if he testified against him, say the documents.
One document says Agecoutay did conspire to have a person assaulted who testified against him at trial.
The documents show Agecoutay was also the leader of a violent riot in one correctional centre where he was housed. He has faced various prison charges, including one for assaulting an inmate with a bat in 2002. Staff had found weapons in his cell.
Agecoutay refused to see a prison psychiatrist, but experts believe he may suffer from a mental illness because he hears voices.
"At times you get so over-stimulated and agitated by these voice that you often flip-out," say the documents.
A psychologist labelled Agecoutay in one report as a "high risk for violence," and the parole board refused to grant his automatic statutory release when he had served two-thirds of his sentence.
Agecoutay was kept behind bars until the final day of his sentence in February 2005.
Wolfe, who is from The Pas, Man., served his first federal sentence of three years beginning in 1995 for using a firearm during the commission of an offence and obstruction of justice.
The documents say he received automatic statutory release two years later but within a month breached release conditions by being in the company of gang members. Police investigating a home invasion found Wolfe hiding in a nearby home, dressed in "full gang regalia," with known gang members.
Although Wolfe was not charged in that home invasion, the parole board revoked his release.
The board granted his release and revoked it a second time in 1998, and his full sentence expired later that year.
In 1999, Wolfe was sentenced to eight years and two months for an armed home invasion to collect a debt. The document said the crime involved threatening to kill victims with a sawed-off shotgun and causing them psychological harm.
"You have not shown any remorse for your victims," said one report.
The documents further say that while incarcerated in the Prairies, Wolfe was involved in illegal activities for his gang.
At one point, he vowed to leave the criminal organization and the reports do note that he did try better himself. But the board twice revoke his statutory release, in part, because he had contact with gang members on the outside.
The board granted him a final period of statutory release in August 2007.
Details of the escapees turbulent pasts came on the same day a leaked document suggested that officials in Saskatchewan are trying to tighten the government ranks after days of scrambling to explain the jail break.
An email - sent to all members of the legislature and leaked to the media - said Corrections Minister Darryl Hickie "will not be making further public comment" on the escape until an external investigation is complete.
"If you are asked about this matter, your message should be it is now under investigation," said the email.
The note referenced the fact that Hickie was forced to call media outlets Wednesday to apologize and correct comments made about the escape in a news conference earlier that day.
Among other things, Hickie said there was no tip about a pending escape received by corrections staff.
In fact, senior jail officials in Saskatchewan were tipped to the possibility of an escape 10 days before the prisoners, some of whom are facing murder charges, broke out of the provincial jail.
Hickie said that there are often tips about possible escapes and officials were trying to gather more information. In this case, he said, the information did not have specific details about what unit or inmates were involved.
Legal experts appear to back Hickie's argument, saying corrections workers often get tips, but facilities can't be locked down on vague rumours.
"These rumours are constantly flowing around prison circles," said Sanjeev Anand, a law professor at the University of Alberta and former Crown prosecutor in Edmonton.
"You have to remember that the sources are often other inmates and they're not the most reliable sources in the world," said Anand.
"You need to have fairly cogent evidence before you lock down an institution, otherwise you'd be locking it down consistently. The issue here though is what was the information, how cogent was it and what steps did the staff take?"
- By Chris Purdy in Saskatoon; With files from Jennifer Graham in Regina




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