Kelvin Fuller Returned to Westville Prison

WESTVILLE, IN - Kelvin Fuller, age 42 of Anderson, Indiana returned this past weekend to the custody of the Indiana Department of Correction.  Fuller escaped from the medium security section of the Westville Correctional Facility on August 1, 2007.  He was apprehended near Butte, Montana one week later on August 8, 2007 still driving a vehicle he purportedly had taken in Indiana.   

Fuller was originally convicted out of Hancock, Marion and Madison Counties for several crimes including multiple counts of Robbery and Battery, as well as Criminal Confinement, Burglary, Arson, and Escape from Lawful Confinement.  He was first sent to the Department of Correction on January 3, 1992, and his projected release date from incarceration prior to his escape had been March 2, 2012. 

Between his escape and re-capture, Fuller reportedly committed several additional crimes in Indiana and other states while heading west.  He has since been sentenced on some of those out-of-state charges.  He is being returned to the Indiana Department of Correction to finish the balance of his original sentences, as well as to face additional pending charges related to his escape in Indiana. 

Fuller was convicted on December 15, 2008 by the United States District Court of a bank robbery committed in Wyoming during the escape.  He received a sentence of 188 months (15 years and 8 months) for that crime to be served consecutive to the remaining time still left on his original sentences in Indiana. 

On November 11, 2007, while awaiting trial on the bank robbery charge in Wyoming, Fuller was transported to the local hospital for medical treatment.  While being treated, he took a nurse hostage, cut her with a home-made weapon, and then tried to get the gun from the U.S. Marshall who intervened.  He was subsequently convicted on April 13, 2009 of Aggravated Assault and Battery in the Laramie County, Wyoming Circuit Court for that offense and sentenced to 9-10 years consecutive to the federal sentence of 188 months. 

Fuller is now being held in the maximum security section at Westville.  Anytime a maximum security is outside their cell, they are shackled and handcuffed and under the hands-on control of multiple staff.  “Based on Fuller’s behavior even under the authority of the United States Marshall, we are taking every precaution to insure the safety of the public as well as our own staff” according to Superintendent William Wilson. 

Department of Correction Commissioner Edwin G. Buss stated “At this point, the Department of Correction’s duty is to insure that Kelvin Fuller is made available to the appropriate authorities within Indiana so his alleged crimes can be properly heard within the criminal justice system.”