A career criminal is accused of robbing and threatening to murder a woman at knifepoint after he was released from state prison thanks to a nationwide jailbreak push in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
On March 17, according to Utah law enforcement officials, 42-year-old Joshua Haskell was released from a halfway house over a plan to free inmates deemed “non-violent” to stop the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. Haskell had previously been freed from Utah State Prison after serving time for drug crimes and a parole violation.
Two days after his release from the halfway house, Haskell allegedly entered a woman’s home while she was sleeping and awakened her, yelling at her that if she did not stop screaming he was “going to cut her head off,” according to an affidavit obtained by Desert News.
This is when police said Haskell tied the woman up, binding her wrists and ankles, and demanded that she give him her cash money, credit cards, and the PIN numbers for the cards. Haskell allegedly threatened to return to the house and kill the woman if she gave him the wrong PIN numbers.
The woman’s son heard his mother screaming from the bedroom and called police officers. Haskell allegedly told the woman to tell the police that he was her partner when the police arrived. As Haskell got into bed, the woman ran downstairs toward police officers.
Police arrested Haskell at gunpoint and found drugs and drug paraphernalia on him. In the affidavit obtained by Desert News, the woman told police officers “she was sure she was going to die and that she was just waiting for the suspect to stab her.”
Haskell has a long criminal record which includes at least four convictions for drug crimes. Now, the career criminal has been charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, drug possession, and possession of a weapon.
The incident comes as cities across the United States have implemented plans to release state prisoners that they consider “non-violent” under the guise of coronavirus potentially spreading in prison among inmates.
While Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police officers have been advised to free suspects accused of “non-violent” crimes, the George Soros-funded American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has asked the Justice Department to release 10,000 felons from federal prison in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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