Hampden District Attorney Mark Mastroianni said the sentencing does not relate to any of the crimes he is alleged to have committed after his escape from the Massachusetts Criminal Institute.
Tamik KirklandWOBURN – Tamik J. Kirkland pleaded guilty Friday to escaping from a minimum security prison, but is still awaiting trial for murder and other crimes he is accused of committing during a revenge-driven break.
The escape conviction nets the Springfield resident an additional five years in prison.
Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni said Friday’s sentencing only relates to Kirkland’s escape, not any of the crimes he is alleged to have committed after the April 24, 2011, escape from the Massachusetts Criminal Institute in Shirley, a minimum security prison.
Kirkland still has to answer in Hampden Superior Court for a slew of charges from his arrest on April 30, 2011, including murder and multiple counts of armed assault with intent to murder, home invasion, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, as well as multiple counts of unlawful weapons possession.
The trial for those charges is expected to begin in the fall.
Kirkland on Friday admitted to escaping from MCI-Shirley, where he had been sentenced in 2009 to serve a 2½- to 4-year sentence for possessing a large-capacity firearm. The additional 5-year sentence on the escape charge will kick in once he completes the remainder of his sentence on the original 2009 conviction.
Mastroianni said because the charges against Kirkland were for offenses committing in two separate jurisdictions, Middlesex and Hampden counties, it required two prosecutions.
The prosecution in Middlesex County had “a narrow and specific focus” on the escape, he said. The trial did not introduce any of the charges against Kirkland in Hampden County.
Kirkland’s escape came one day after his mother was injured in a Ringgold Street shooting. Authorities allege that Kirkland escaped in order to return to Springfield to seek revenge on those who shot his mother.
Six days after the escape, Kirkland is accused of firing several shots into the Bill Brown House of Beauty barbershop, 945 State St., critically injuring the barber and killing a customer, Sheldon Innocent, of Wilbraham.
Authorities have said that neither the barber nor Innocent had anything to do with the shooting of Kirkland’s mother.
After the State Street shooting, Kirkland ran to Cambridge Street where he tried to escape by hiding in the trunk of a friend’s car.
After police surrounded the vehicle Kirkland jumped out of the trunk and fired multiple shots at police. A state trooper and a Springfield police officer were each hit but escaped injury to do their Kevlar protective vests, police said.
Kirkland was shot six times before he was taken into custody.
A state investigation into the escape from MCI-Shirley revealed procedural errors and misconduct by staff led to his escape. The investigation also revealed Kirkland had been given a cell phone, a forbidden item for prison inmates, by an employee of a prison vendor who officials said had had an “improper and intimate relationship” with Kirkland.
Two of Mastroianni’s assistant district attorneys, Matthew Shea and Donna Donato, were sworn in as special prosecutors in Middlesex County so they could lead the case against him for the escape charge.
Mastroianni said he reached agreement with Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. for the special prosecutor.
“I think it is important to have a continuity of our office at every stage of the prosecution.”
Mastroianni said he will lead the prosecution against Kirkland when the trial opens in Hampden County this fall.