Escaped murderer from Sask. prison found in Saskatoon

A man convicted of murder and being held at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert was found in Saskatoon.

Saskatoon police say they were called when a man matching the description of Kevin Michael Sheets entered a building in the 200 block of 20th Street East.

When officers arrived, he was taken into custody without incident. The 47-year-old will be returned to the penitentiary.

According to a release from the Correctional Service of Canada, Sheets was “not accounted for” during an 8:55 p.m. head count at Prince Albert’s Saskatchewan Penitentiary on Wednesday.

Sheets was serving an indeterminate sentence for second degree murder at the prison’s minimum security unit when he disappeared.

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He’s described as 5’7″, 161 lbs with a fair complexion, brown eyes, brown hair and tattoos on both arms.

The RCMP is facing questions over its handling of the incident at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

From the time the initial news release went out regarding Sheets’s escape, it would take 11 hours for RCMP to issue a picture of him.

“We need to go through the appropriate channels and do our due diligence to ensure we are not breaching the privacy act, and the privacy of an individual,” said Mandy Maier.

Maier said that a description of Sheets was given in the initial news release, which was issued around 2 a.m., Thursday morning.

“It’s important that we don’t let technology get ahead of us. We need to make sure our due diligence is done and our due processes so the right information is released at the right time,” said Maier.

Sheets is originally from Vancouver, was serving time for a murder conviction that dates back to 1997.

-With files from paNOW’s Nigel Maxwell. 

news@panow.com 

On Twitter: @princealbertnow