Prisoner Who Escaped from Monroe Correctional Complex Apprehended

Escaped prisoner found at the Lynnwood Sound Transit center. Photo credit: Jeremy Harris of Komo.

Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) and local law enforcement apprehended minimum security incarcerated individual Samuel Evans Kimble (DOC# 439536), who escaped from the Minimum Security Unit at Monroe Correctional Complex at 10:53 PM.

25-year-old Kimble was apprehended at 12:15 PM on May 15, at the Lynnwood Transit Station after DOC’s Community Response Unit (CRU) along with the Snohomish Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF), received a number of helpful tips from the public.

Kimble was apprehended by CRU and VOTF without incident; however he did have injuries sustained from the fence line during the escape.

Kimble was currently serving a sentence of 27 months for a conviction of a Domestic Violence Court Order Violation – Assault out of Snohomish County with an earned release date of Jan. 5, 2027.

Staff determined Kimble was no longer in the facility after a formal count at 3:30 AM, and restricted movement was called in order to thoroughly search the grounds. Security footage review determined the time of escape. Local law enforcement was notified as well as nearby schools.

DOC will conduct a critical incident review of the escape to determine where process improvements should occur, including timeliness of notification to the public via press release.

My Everett News was never notified about this incident. Local schools and local law enforcement didn’t release info to the public until five hours after the discovery, and nine hours after the escape.

One delay possibility is the new Governor Ferguson policy to route these types of press releases through his office (no previous governor had this policy). Axios revealed that the new policy was not to be shared with the media. This new policy may put the public in danger and should be reviewed and reconsidered.