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Lisbon couple jailed after fugitive chase
No one was hurt when the fugitives drove into a nursing home.
LISBON — A couple has been charged after a jail break and chase that ended when they crashed into a West Virginia nursing home forcing the evacuation of 24 people.
In Columbiana County, Larry Williams, 35, of Lisbon, is charged with escape and vandalism.
His girlfriend, Candy Kibler, 37, also of Lisbon, is charged with felony obstruction of justice. Both have criminal records.
They are in Southwest Regional Jail in Bexley, W.Va.
They were taken into custody about 12:15 a.m. Friday by West Virginia authorities.
Allen Haueter, chief deputy for the Columbiana County sheriff’s office, said Friday that Williams escaped from the jail’s minimum-security section. He had been talking to Kibler on the phone, apparently about her former boyfriend who allegedly owed her money, and he became angry.
That portion of the jail is a former nursing home and is run by a private company, CiviGenics Inc. of Milford, Mass.
Peter Argeropulos, CiviGenics’ chief operating officer, said Williams took an air conditioning unit out of the wall, and used a piece of wood that supported it to smash the window and escape.
Haueter said a deputy coming to the jail saw Williams running away.
Authorities went to Kibler’s home but did not find Williams.
Haueter said Williams apparently stole a car from a home near the jail, drove to Lisbon to pick up Kibler, and went to Kensington to see her ex-boyfriend to get money.
Haueter said the couple drove to Wooster in Wayne County, where they allegedly stole another vehicle. Haueter said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation is to process the vehicle Monday for any evidence.
Chief Tim Stover of the Lewisburg Police Department in West Virginia said his officers saw the couple driving and tried to stop the vehicle that went across a field and a parking lot and crashed into the kitchen of the Brier Nursing Home.
Stover said 24 residents were transferred to the Greenbrier Valley Medical Center as a precautionary measure. The crash ruptured a natural gas line.
No one at the nursing home facility was hurt, he added.
Williams and Kibler were both treated for minor injuries at the medical center.
The crash caused an estimated $10,000 to $15,000 to the facility.
The couple are in the West Virginia jail on fugitive warrants. Stover said he would wait to see how the extradition hearings progressed before deciding whether to pursue charges in Lewisburg.
wilkinson@vindy.com