By Joseph Szydlowski
The Cincinnati Post
KENTON COUNTY, Kent. — An inmate who Kenton County jailers say fell down an elevator shaft in an aborted escape attempt has been indicted on two first degree robbery counts that got him locked up in the first place.
Edward Webster, 42, of Covington, was indicted Thursday by a Kenton County grand jury, said Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders.
Webster is charged with robbing at gunpoint the Madison Avenue Family Dollar Store and Kimmy’s Korner Deli, both in Covington on April 16.
He was arrested later that day.
Webster made headlines after his arrest in what authorities called an escape attempt from the Kenton County Detention Center May 28.
Jail officials said Webster climbed onto the shoulders of fellow inmate Ronald Bowen in the jail’s 10th floor recreation yard, cut a hole in the chain-link ceiling of the enclosure and gained access to an elevator shaft. Inside that, he shimmied down a cable.
But his scheme went awry, jail officials said, when he fell into the pit of the shaft after unsuccessfully trying to force open a door on the second floor. He suffered a fractured skull.
Sanders said Webster faces up to 40 years in prison on the robbery charges, and that doesn’t take into account charges related to the escape attempt, or the fact that he was on parole for a prior offense.
If he were to be convicted on those charges, he could wind up in prison for life, Sanders said.
Webster is scheduled to be arraigned July 2.
Copyright 2007 The Cincinnati Post