Escapee Takes In a Game, Strikes Out With Warden
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BUTTE, Mont. — Montana prison escapee Michael Michell was in Seattle when he decided to take in a baseball game.
Bad choice.
As he stood at a Kingdome souvenir stand, an old acquaintance was right behind him: the warden of Montana State Prison.
“Out of 27,000 people you run into a guy that you know,” Warden Jack McCormick told The Montana Standard newspaper. “I was a smidgen surprised.”
McCormick, vacationing in Seattle, was at the Mariners-Orioles game Wednesday night with his son. He was browsing for souvenirs when he spotted Michell, who was convicted of homicide and was three months from a parole hearing when he escaped Jan. 19.
“He was real surprised to see me,” McCormick said. “He knew who I was. I said, ‘Hi, Mike, how ya doin’?’ ”
McCormick said Michell hesitated for a moment, then told the warden: “I guess I’ll see you back there.”
Michell, 40, faces an additional two to 10 years for escape, authorities said.
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