An escaped Connecticut prisoner’s phone call to his mother led to his arrest Wednesday at a Canton gas station.
Jerry Mercado, 25, had been on the run for two weeks before a Chevron clerk notified police of his whereabouts, Canton police spokesman Pacer Cordry said in a news release.
He changed his looks and planned to catch a bus out of town, but Jennifer Fernandez called the cops before he could make any arrangements, Channel 2 Action News reported. Fernandez said she heard part of the conversation between Mercado and his mom.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
“Once she picked up, he was like: ‘Hey mom, I’m fine,’” she told Channel 2. Fernandez said when Mercado’s mom asked where he was, he replied: “‘Well, I’m calling from hell.’
“Then he asked me: ‘Do you know if these phones are tapped or if anything’s wrong with them or if someone’s listening?’”
Unbeknown to Mercado, Connecticut authorities were able to trace the call and alert Canton police.
Fernandez said Mercado had hitchhiked to Georgia by bus and was asking customers in the gas station for help getting a ticket out of town, Channel 2 reported.
Mercado had been staying at a warming center at the Action Church before authorities were notified he might be in Georgia, Cordry said. Deputies took him there, assuming he was homeless, Channel 2 reported.
Police said he planned to return later that night.
But he never made it back.
Fernandez called the cops when she spotted Mercado as she was leaving work.
Mercado was serving a three-year burglary sentence when he escaped from Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield, Conn., on Jan. 7, according to the Connecticut Department of Corrections.
Authorities have not said what ties Mercado had to Georgia, if any, or how long he’d been in the state.
Once back in Connecticut, Mercado will be taken to the Northern Correctional Institution, where he will be placed on administrative segregation — the agency’s highest level of supervision.
About the Author
