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Jail mixup set stage for escape
By RYAN DAVIS and ED QUIOCO
© St. Petersburg Times, Less than six hours after he was mistakenly released from the Pasco County Jail, animal cruelty suspect Robert B. Pettyjohn II surrendered to Pinellas authorities early Tuesday. Pettyjohn, accused of crimes including two llama attacks, was waiting to be transferred to the Pinellas County Jail when he slid into a line for inmates who were supposed to be released. Pettyjohn picked up a cellular phone and walked out the door, according to Pasco officials. "He was gone in less than two minutes," Pasco County Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said. Pettyjohn, 18, already faces animal cruelty charges in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties for killing one bull and wounding another with arrows, killing a goat and attacking two pet llamas. A young llama's eye was gouged out and an adult llama was sodomized and later died after the golf club beating on Feb. 11. Asked if Pettyjohn would face an escape charge for leaving the Pasco jail Monday night, chief assistant state attorney Bruce Bartlett said, "I would think that's a pretty safe bet." "This guy's problem is he just doesn't know when to quit," Bartlett said. "Nothing he has done makes any sense. All he has done is successfully talked himself into a very long time in the state prison system." Pettyjohn's attorney, Christie Pardo, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Pasco sheriff's documents and officials, gave this account of the escape: About 6:30 p.m. Monday, five inmates were in line to be released from the jail as Pettyjohn waited to be transferred to Pinellas. Corrections deputy Kimberly Shaw was waiting for the inmates' property so she could return it to them. While they were waiting, one of the inmates became belligerent and was sent to a cell. When it came time to release the inmates, Shaw became distracted. Pettyjohn seized the opening. He replaced the inmate who had been sent to a cell. Shaw looked at her paperwork, realized she had five papers and five inmates, so she gave them their belongings and let them go. By the time Shaw realized her mistake it was too late. More than a dozen deputies and a sheriff's dog searched for Pettyjohn, Pasco sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers said. Inside the jail, officials still had his wallet. In it, they found a phone number for his sister. They called her and told her to find Pettyjohn and return him to jail. "Apparently he got the word," Doll said. Pettyjohn turned himself in to the Pinellas County Jail shortly after midnight, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie said. Tuesday night, Pettyjohn was being held at the Pinellas jail in lieu of $295,000 bail. Pettyjohn was the third man to escape from the Pasco jail in a week, authorities said. Last week, two escapees walked out an open door in a recreation area and climbed to freedom. "The fact it's happened here twice in a week, that's very unusual," Doll said Tuesday. "You can bet the supervisors at the jail are having long talks with the deputies about proper procedure and attention to detail." Pettyjohn's latest animal cruelty charge was filed last week after investigators unearthed the remains of a goat in the back yard of Pettyjohn's former home on Ranch Road in East Lake A necropsy concluded the goat was stabbed and beaten to death with a blunt object, its head cracked into 29 pieces. According to court records, David J. Sullivan told Pinellas sheriff's Detective Thomas Hoddinott that Pettyjohn had confided to stealing two goats in late January or early February. Sullivan, who is identified as a "close associate" of Pettyjohn, told Hoddinott that Pettyjohn "tethered the goats, repeatedly speared them with metal spears, beat them with a metal baseball bat, slit their throats, chopped off their horns with a machete and buried (the) goats on his property," according to a sworn statement from Hoddinott. At Pettyjohn's home, Sullivan said he "saw two bloody spears, a dented metal baseball bat and a bloody goat's horn approximately six inches in length," according to the affidavit. Detectives have been investigating Pettyjohn since the February attack on the two llamas "for over one dozen acts of animal cruelty and other crimes committed by him and his associates in and out of Pinellas County over the past 18 months," the complaint says. Investigators also have charged Pettyjohn's friend, Brandon Eldred, 18, in connection with the February attack on the two llamas, an attack on two bulls in Odessa and an attack on a third llama. Pettyjohn is scheduled for trial Monday in Hillsborough County for the attack on two bulls. Pettyjohn and Eldred are accused of killing one bull and wounding another with arrows on Jan. 17. Eldred, 18, pleaded guilty on Oct. 11 to one count of armed trespass and one count of killing or injuring registered livestock for the attack on the bulls, said Hillsborough assistant state attorney Robin Fuson. Eldred still is awaiting sentencing, which will come after a presentence investigation. In Pinellas, Pettyjohn is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 11 for the attack on the two llamas and other charges. Eldred's trial is scheduled Nov. 27.
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