An escaped Oregon inmate who threatened woman with a hammer returns to prison to serve more time

An inmate who escaped a work crew and threatened an 84-year-old woman with a hammer in a downtown Salem parking garage last year has been sentenced to just under six years in prison.

A Marion County Circuit judge last month found Joe L. Smallwood-Sain, 43, guilty of second-degree robbery and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree escape.

Last year, on April 10, Smallwood-Sain escaped from custody while on a work crew, according to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. According to investigators, he later told police he left to look for drugs at a nearby trailer park.

At the time, Smallwood-Sain was serving a 13-month prison sentence for a theft conviction out of Washington County. He was being held at Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem.

He took a bus into downtown Salem and headed to the Macy’s parking garage, where he approached a woman with a hammer and ordered her to “give you your keys,” authorities said. The woman screamed and ran to the store’s entrance, where a security guard spotted Smallwood-Sain in the woman’s car, according to the district attorney’s office report. The security guard got into his own car and blocked Smallwood-Sain in a parking lot. Smallwood-Sain took off running, at one point swinging the hammer at the security guard, authorities said.

Salem police officers caught up with Smallwood-Sain on Lancaster Drive.

Smallwood-Sain was sentenced last week; he is not eligible for parole.

— Noelle Crombie is a business reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.

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