'Shawshank' fugitive since 1959 back in Ohio prison
His sentenced will be recalculated based on his time away.
Frank Freshwaters is back in an Ohio prison nearly six decades after walking away from a work camp and two weeks after the U.S. Marshal's office tracked him to a mobile home just west of Melbourne.
The 79-year-old was turned over to Ohio authorities Tuesday during a visit to the Brevard County Jail Complex in Sharpes and flown back to Orient, Ohio where he was immediately booked into Correctional Reception Center. He arrived at the facility at 6 p.m. Tuesday, less than a week after he struck up a failed legal effort to fight extradition from Florida.
"Over the next several days his sentence will be recalculated based on his time at large and his time in custody to determine his parole hearing eligibility date," said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Freshwaters, who spent time in Ohio State Reformatory used later to film the 1994 movie, Shawshank Redemption, faces escape charges but could garner a parole hearing based on the time he has spent behind bars, including during his 1975 arrest in West Virginia on the same fugitive warrant and the last few weeks at the Brevard County Jail.
He was originally sentenced to spend one to 20 years on a violation of probation charge before his 1959 escape from a prison work camp in Sandusky, Ohio.
Family members, friends and activists involved in the case hope to arrange a meeting with Freshwaters in the next few weeks to discuss a legal strategy to win his release. Freshwaters was 21-years-old when he was indicted on a manslaughter charge in 1957. Police said he was involved in an accident that left a 24-year-old father of three dead.
After his escape, Freshwaters went to Florida, then settled in West Virginia as a truck driver.
He moved back to Florida in the mid-80s where he worked for the parents of current Florida state senator Thad Altman. He was arrested May 4 on the Altman's property just west of Interstate 95.
Friends, who knew Freshwaters under the alias "William Cox," said that he thought the issue of the escape had been settled with arrest and subsequent release by West Virginia authorities.
Last Thursday, Freshwaters' attorney argued that his client was "confused," and was not formally assigned an attorney when he initially signed a waiver of extradition on May 5, a day after his arrest.
Freshwaters, who was placed in a wheelchair, and on video can be seen mumbling softly in response to the judge's questions during his first appearance. The judge dismissed the claims and paved the way for Freshwaters to be returned to Ohio authorities.
Freshwaters had no further record of any legal trouble after the 1975 arrest, said Maj. Tod Goodyear of the Brevard County sheriff's office, and friends say he lived a quiet life, volunteering occasionally for a local church and growing old with a wife who died of cancer in the 1990s.
Authorities say that now the courts should decide Freshwaters' fate.
"This has been going on since 1959, and it is time that it comes to a conclusion," said Assistant State Attorney Michael Hunt on Monday, when the judge's ruling was released.
"Ohio can take into consideration what he has done since," Hunt added.
Contact Gallop at 321-242-3642, jdgallop@floridatoday.com or Twitter@JDGallop