A teenage murder suspect who escaped from juvenile detention Monday was captured after a motorist spotted him running out of the woods in his prison uniform.
The 17-year-old escaped during a recreation period around 2 p.m. from the Dillon Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Butner, north of Durham in Granville County. Officials from several agencies searched for him for over eight hours.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman confirmed to The News & Observer on Tuesday that the teen, Zane Cesnik of Raleigh, is charged with murder in the death of 71-year-old Jerry Hicks last year on Old Milburnie Road in eastern Wake County.
Hicks died from severe head injuries and a stab wound to the neck, according to an autopsy report from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
Cesnik was 16 at the time of the incident, and his case has been transferred to Superior Court, where he will be tried as an adult, Freeman said.
Inmate doesn’t resist capture
Authorities had been concerned about the safety of both Cesnik and anyone who might encounter him, saying the teen had a “history of unpredictable behavior,” according to ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner.
At a news conference Tuesday, Granville County Sheriff Robert Fountain Jr. said the teen was wearing his detention-center uniform and had minor scratches and bruises when someone at a perimeter checkpoint reported seeing him on the highway on Range Road around 11 p.m.
“He did not resist once he was approached by law enforcement,” Fountain said.
“He didn’t make any comments or statements, and we didn’t ask him anything,” he added.
There is no indication the teen had any help escaping, said William Lassiter, deputy secretary for juvenile justice with the N.C. Department of Public Safety.
An investigation will now look into how Cesnik escaped.
“We’re looking at any action by personnel to make sure they [took] appropriate actions during the incident,” Lassiter said. “We’re also looking at the physical security of the building itself ... to make sure that this cannot happen again.”
The facility was full or nearly full Monday when the teen escaped. It dates to the 1960s, was closed in 2010 and reopened two years ago with security upgrades when North Carolina’s “Raise the Age” legislation put more older teens accused of serious crimes in juvenile detention, Lassiter said.
“As we’ve gotten older youth, we know that they’re physically stronger and more capable of doing things that our younger youth were not able to do in the past,” he said. “We’ve already noticed some physical-security things that we may be able to put in place at [this] facility to eliminate this type of problem from happening again.”
“There are going to be lessons learned from this just like there are lessons learned from any crisis situation that you have,” Lassiter said.
Previous escape reported
This appears to be the second time that Cesnik has escaped from detention.
WRAL reported Tuesday that the teen escaped in February from Richmond Correctional Institution in Richmond County, citing a Facebook post from the Derby Fire Department that month.
Lassiter said records of young people housed in juvenile detention are not public and he could not confirm that the teen had previously escaped from custody.
Lassiter also would not say, for security reasons, where Cesnik would be taken next.
“We want to make sure he is not getting any help [to escape] in the future,” he said.
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