An inmate accused in the fatal stabbing of a correctional officer in 2006 tried to escape yesterday evening while being examined at Mercy Medical Center, less than a mile from the Super Max prison where he was being held, a spokesman for the state's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said.
Rick Binetti, the spokesman, said Lamarr C. Harris, 37, was being examined for an undetermined illness or injury about 6 p.m. at Mercy Medical Center on North Calvert Street when Harris tried to flee by "taking a couple of steps" and was immediately restrained by four Super Max officers and at least two hospital security personnel.
Binetti said no injuries resulted in the escape attempt and that Harris was immediately returned to the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center, also known as Super Max.
"Everything worked that is supposed to work in preventing an escape," Binetti said. He said the number of correctional officers escorting Harris was in effect because of Harris' history.
Binetti said the convicted murderer was wearing restraints, as required, when he tried to escape. He did not know what method of restraint was being used when Harris tried to flee.
Harris and Lee E. Stephens, 28, are charged in the July 2006 killing of David W. McGuinn, 42, a correctional officer who was stabbed with homemade weapons at the Maryland House of Correction.
The killing of McGuinn, and a subsequent nonfatal stabbing of another correctional officer, prompted Gov. Martin O'Malley to close the Maryland House of Correction in March 2007.
Harris and Stephens are to be tried in Anne Arundel County, and prosecutors have asked for the death penalty for both defendants. Each is serving a life term for murder.
Monday's escape attempt comes a month after a jury convicted Brandon T. Morris, 22, of first-degree murder in the killing of corrections Officer Jeffery A. Wroten while trying to escape from Washington County Hospital in January 2006.
Morris was serving a seven-year sentence at Roxbury Correctional Institution for armed robbery and assault when he was taken to the hospital after stabbing himself near the liver with a needle. Wroten was guarding him overnight. According to prosecutors, Morris shot Wroten in the face with the officer's state-issued revolver, then jumped into a cab outside the hospital and ordered the driver to take him to Pennsylvania.
Also last month, Jessup Correction Institution inmate Kelvin D. Poke, 45, overpowered two correctional officers who were guarding him at Laurel Regional Hospital. Poke, who stole two guns and carjacked a vehicle outside the hospital, died hours later in a Prince George's County cemetery during a shootout with police.
Poke's escape and another inmate's escape two months earlier prompted hospital officials to halt admissions of inmates in nonemergencies until security procedures were tightened.
Two correctional officers were fired after an investigation showed that one of them took a break, leaving Poke supervised by only one officer - a violation of department policies requiring two officers at all times, according to state officials.
McGuinn's death came during a tumultuous time at the antiquated and now-closed House of Corrections prison in Jessup. Earlier in 2006, three inmates were fatally stabbed within two months, and two officers were attacked by knife-wielding inmates during the spring.
Sun reporters Brent Jones and Greg Garland contributed to this article.