Sentencing for jail-breakers goes to 3-judge panel

PALMER — What defense attorneys say was a quick run tobacco run for a pair of Palmer Correctional Center inmates has landed the men before a three-judge sentencing panel.

James A. Sugar, 38, and Eugene Bourdon, 30, would both be out of jail by now if they hadn’t decided to leave the prison’s minimum-security section, which has no fence, March 31, 2007.

Bourdon had about 200 days left to serve, said Josh Fannon, his attorney. Sugar’s attorney, Lyle Stohler, said his client had 38 days to serve. Both agree Bourdon enlisted Sugar’s help in locating tobacco someone had stashed for Bourdon in the nearby woods. Neither returned to the jail.

Prosecutor Mike Walsh said Bourdon, when he was apprehended, was running down the Glenn Highway toward Anchorage and was apprehended at gunpoint. Sugar gave up willingly.

Fannon called the contention that his client was running from the facility absurd, but the men were convicted of escape by a jury last August.

How much jail time the tobacco run would cost the men was the subject of a Thursday sentencing hearing. Walsh is seeking prison terms within the six- to 10-year range prescribed by law. Stohler and Fannon are asking for three years, which they said is consistent with what other escapees from the same facility have received.

At the time the two men escaped, Sugar was serving time for felony theft. Stohler said Sugar had been jailed for stealing things from parked, unoccupied cars. Bourdon was in prison for failing to register as a sex offender, a requirement of a conviction he received when, at age 19, he had consensual sex over the course of a few months with three girls ages 15, 14 and 13, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler said, citing a probation officer’s report.

Noting that both Sugar and Bourdon were nearing the end of two-year terms, Cutler said it could be argued, “It just doesn’t make sense to triple, actually quadruple, the amount of time a person is incarcerated.”

In the end, the judge and attorneys decided to forward the case to a three-judge panel.

Cutler said the panel generally meets in Anchorage and hears cases within four months.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.