A Denver County Jail inmate serving 270 days for marijuana possession escaped from a work crew in a Colorado Department of Transportation van when the driver stopped to have a tire repaired.
Gregory Kilcollins, 22, had already served one month of his sentence when he left the jail this morning to work on the crew.
At about 9 a.m., the CDOT employee supervising Kilcollins and two other inmates stopped at A&E Tire on 52nd Avenue and Vasquez Boulevard to have a slow tire leak repaired, said Capt. Frank Gale, a jail spokesman.
Kilcollins remained outside while the CDOT driver “went in to talk to the attendant and two others in the crew went in to go to the restroom,” Gale said.
The driver left the keys in the white van, and Kilcollins, who has been in jail on misdemeanor traffic or drug charges seven times since 2003, drove off. The van was pulling a small trailer carrying tools.
Kilcollins, who was wearing a dark blue jail jumpsuit, could face a felony charge and a sentence of several years for stealing the van when he is caught, Gale said. “Potentially, he is looking at some really serious time based on just this one stupid act.”
Nonviolent inmates such as Kilcollins, who pose no risk to the community, are frequently assigned to work crews. He had been working on the crew collecting trash along state highways for three weeks before he escaped.
In October, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail. After he was released, he went to court on a separate, pending case for possession of hashish and received his current sentence.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
