LansingCurrent.com / New charge filed in prison escape

Archive for Thursday, April 20, 2006

April 20, 2006, 6:23 p.m.

Updated: April 21, 2006, 12:04 p.m.

Toby Young, the prison volunteer who is accused of helping a convicted murderer escape in February from the Lansing Correctional Facility, appears in Leavenworth County District Court on Friday, March 3. Young is being held on $100,000 bond.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled June 2 for Toby Young, the woman accused of helping a convicted killer escape from Lansing Correctional Facility earlier this year.

Leavenworth County District Judge Frederick Stewart set the hearing for 1 p.m. June 2 during a hearing Friday morning.

Young, 48, Kansas City, Kan., was charged March 3 with aiding and abetting aggravated escape and aiding a felon in the Feb. 12 escape of John M. Manard, a 27-year-old convicted killer. Young ran Safe Harbor Prison Dog program at the prison and is alleged to have driven Manard out of the prison, hidden in a dog crate in the program's van.

As expected, Young also was charged Friday with trafficking contraband into a correctional facility. Leavenworth County Atty. Frank Kohl said Thursday a post-escape investigation produced evidence that Young had given Manard a cellular telephone to use within the prison walls.

Young and Manard were captured Feb. 24 in rural Tennessee. Young continues to be held in the Leavenworth County Jail on $100,000 bond. Manard is back at Lansing.

Young appeared at the hearing with her attorney, Jim Yoakum, a longtime family friend. Yoakum declined to meet with reporters after the hearing.