Police search for escaped prisoner in Salem

June 25, 2008 11:40 AM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

A man facing home invasion and kidnapping charges escaped from sheriff's deputies this morning while being taken to a Salem court, fleeing with a woman who appeared to be waiting for him in a stolen car, police said.

Miguel Angel Caraballo

Miguel Angel Caraballo, 27, had been shackled as he was being transported in a sheriff's van to Salem Superior Court for a pretrial hearing. Caraballo somehow escaped custody and jumped into a 1998 white Nissan, which was being driven by a woman, according to Salem Police Sergeant Peter Shaffaval.

State and local police are searching for Caraballo, who was wearing an orange jacket. The incident is being investigated by the Essex County Sheriff's Office. Shaffaval urged anyone with information about Caraballo to call the sheriff's office at 1-888-863-1477, Ext. 3300.

Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the sheriff's office, said Caraballo was being guarded by a transportation team of two officers when he escaped, still in his restraints. "He was able to get away from the people who were watching him and he shuffled into a car that was being driven by an unknown visitor," Fleming said. The car was recovered about an hour later on Kimball Court, about a half-mile away from the courthouse.

Fleming would not comment on whether authorities knew the driver's identity and said it was unknown if more people were involved in Caraballo's escape plot.

"All leads are being investigated," he said, including a review of the people who visited Caraballo while he was in custody.

Fleming would not say where authorities are searching for Caraballo or how many people are involved in the manhunt.

The charges against Caraballo stem from an alleged home invasion in Haverhill in Dec. 21, according to an article published in April by the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune. Caraballo allegedly pistol-whipped a man with a .45-caliber handgun during the break-in.

According to the article, Caraballo and two other men went into a home on Corliss Hill Road. Police said a guest of the homeowner was sleeping upstairs when the intruders attacked him, tied him up, and went looking for a safe they believed contained a large amount of cash. The homeowner is a plowing contractor who was working when the attack happened, police said in the article.

Police said the house guest was pistol-whipped as his attackers demanded the location and combination of the safe, which was apparently not in the house. The intruders stole the homeowner's Mercedes Benz, which was found a few days later in Plaistow, N.H., police told the newspaper.

A combination of 25 federal agents, state troopers, and local police officers broke down the door of an apartment in Lowell in April and arrested Caraballo. State Police told the Eagle-Tribune they used such force because Caraballo had said he would rather get in a shootout with police than return to prison.

"He is not a nice person, most definitely," Fleming said.