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5-year prison term for Hawaii psychiatric hospital escape
A man who spent decades in a Hawaii psychiatric hospital for killing a woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for escaping form the facility
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER Associated Press
May 7, 2021, 4:09 AM
• 3 min read
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2017, file photo, escaped hospital patient Randall Saito points to a guard as he sits in an inmate visitor s booth at San Joaquin County Jail before a scheduled court hearing in French Camp, Calif. Saito spent decades in a Hawaii psychiatric hospital for killing a woman and was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday, May 6, 2021, for escaping from the facility in 2017 and flying to California before he was captured. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)
Record news services
HONOLULU A man who spent decades in a Hawaii psychiatric hospital for killing a woman was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for escaping from the facility in 2017 and flying to California, then fleeing to Stockton before he was captured.
In November 2017, authorities said Randall Saito walked out of Hawaii State Hospital, where he was sent in 1981 after he was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity in the 1979 killing of Sandra Yamashiro.
After leaving the hospital, Saito called a taxi that took him to the airport, where boarded a chartered flight to Maui. He used an alias to arrange the flight and paid $1,445 cash for it, prosecutors said. Then he took a commercial flight to San Jose, prosecutors said.