HONOLULU (KHON2) — An Oahu Community Correctional Center work furlough inmate on the run since May is back in custody, captured nearly four thousand miles away.
Issac Pascua, 41, is behind bars in Lubbock, Texas after he was reported missing on May 23rd when he left on an OCCC work furlough pass and never returned.
According to Texas police documents, he didn’t stay on Oahu. With help from his wife, Jenny Pascua, 42, the two boarded a plane traveling first to California, to Arizona, Nevada, then Texas.
The affidavit says Lubbock police investigators received a picture of the Pascuas exiting the plane together at the Lubbock International Airport and eventually tracked them down at a Lubbock hotel.
Jenny Pascua was arrested and charged with hindering the apprehension of a known felon. Issac is awaiting extradition back to Hawaii.
Issac Pascua was serving time for kidnapping and was not expected to be released until 2033. He now faces a second degree escape charge, a class C felony that could tack on five more years behind bars.
Pascua was a community custody inmate in the work furlough program with pass privileges – a program that doesn’t have a lot of security and oversight – for a reason.
“Because they’re slowly integrating themselves into our community, and so if we assess and use additional resources to guard over the people in this program, it kind of defeats the purpose of the program,” legal analyst, Megan Kau.
Kau says fortunately incidents like this don’t happen often, but says the system may need more safeguards.
“It is easy for the inmate to jump on a plane and leave Hawaii because there’s no flags on this person’s records,” said Kau.
There are still unanswered questions like how the Pascuas paid for cross-country flights and hotels while on the run, and whether anyone else helped them along the way.