A psychopathic killer who spent four days on the run after walking out of his Hawaii mental hospital then chartered a private plane to California where he was finally arrested has spoken of his extraordinary escape and how long it took police to reach him.
Randall Saito told San Francisco television station KGO-TV that the Hawaii State Hospital, where he had spent 37 years, wouldn’t give him a chance. He says every time he applied for release, officials made him ‘sound like a bad guy.’
‘I decided I needed to escape and prove that I’m on my own,’ Saito said from a jail in Stockton, California. ‘That I can be out here and act appropriately.
‘Even though I escaped to do it.’
He said that he ‘couldn’t believe’ he made it as far as he did before police caught him, describing his four days on the run as ‘surreal’ after almost 40 decades in custody.
Staffers at the Hawaii State Hospital have been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of an investigation into the circumstances of Saito’s escape.
Fugitive speaks out: Escaped psychiatric hospital patient and killer Randall Saito speaks to a KCRA reporter after his capture in Stockton, California, after being arrested on Wednesday
Saito, 59, was arrested on Wednesday for investigation of felony escape. He was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing Friday.
He walked out of the hospital in suburban Honolulu on Sunday with $6,000 in cash, got a taxi to the airport and took a charter plane to Maui, where he caught another flight to San Jose, California.
Saito told KGO he flew to San Jose because it was the cheapest ticket.
He said he used ‘bogus’ IDs featuring his photo and another person’s name to get past the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint.
He wouldn’t say who helped him in the escape by proving him with the money and identification cards.
When the fugitive landed in San Jose, he said it felt ‘surreal’ that he managed to pull off his daring escape.
Saito spent Monday in San Jose trying to buy a car, but could not find a good enough deal.
He then took a cab to Stockton, where his brother lives, but he said he did not meet with any family members because he did not want to embarrass them, and instead spent most of his time in his hotel room.
Man with a plan: Saito would not tell the interviewer who helped him plot his escape. Several hospital staff have been placed on leave while it is investigated
Righteous indignation: Saito said he escaped because patients’ rights were being denied and he did not feel safe at the state hospital
This photo provided by the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s office shows Saito being arrested Wednesday, after four days on the lam
At one point, he took a cab to a local Walmart to buy a phone, but the device turned out to be defective, so he headed back to the store to try and exchange it but was unable to because he did not have a receipt.
When he came out of the store, his cab driver told him he needed to go to a gas station to fill his tank, and Saito said he started laughing because he knew then that police were onto him.
Sure enough, when he emerged from the gas station convenience store, officers were waiting to take him into custody.
The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office later said Saito’s taxi driver had tipped them off and led them to the escapee.
Saito explained that the escape was an ‘act of desperation’ borne out of his desire to prove that he could exist in society without causing anyone harm.
‘This was about buying myself time in the community to prove that I could be in the community without doing anything wrong,’ he said.
His plan, insofar that he had one, was to stay as long as possible on the outside and build a ‘track record,’ so later he could go back to hospital officials in Hawaii and say, ‘Look, I was out for a month, and no one was hurt by me.’
He has been in the state hospital (pictured) since 1981 when he was put there for stabbing and shooting a woman
Saito’s movements on Sunday from 9am, when he broke out of the hospital, until 5.30pm, when he landed in California
‘I felt human during those four days. I want people in Stockton to know that I was not going to hurt anybody,’ Saito said in another jailhouse interview with KCRA.
Saito was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity for the 1979 killing of Sandra Yamashiro, who was found shot and stabbed multiple times in her car. A 2002 article by the Honolulu Advertiser reported Saito picked his victim at random.
He said he fabricated mental illness – he was diagnosed with sexual sadism and necrophilia – to get into the hospital. But he said he regretted doing so. He also regretted killing Yamashiro.
‘I regret the murder. Let’s just make that clear. I do have remorse about it. I am absolutely contrite. No one else can be more contrite than I. Because no one is more responsible. What do they want me to do? I can’t turn back time,’ Saito said.
He said he was a substance abuser for three years before the killing, indulging in alcohol, LSD and PCP.
‘I was in bad shape. I was paranoid,’ he said, adding that on the night of the killing he ‘snapped.’
Saito described the mental health facility where he had been locked up for nearly four decades as ‘hell in a handbasket’ and alleged that ‘patients’ rights were being denied.’
The 59-year-old (pictured on Sunday at 9am) was described as a ‘violent’ and ‘dangerous’ sexual sadist
Saito, 59, is pictured wearing a bucket hat and orange jacket in the back of a cab he called to collect him from a park on Sunday 15 minutes after escaping from a mental hospital in Honolulu
Saito was carrying a large backpack when he got into the cab. He picked it up along the 1-mile walk from the hospital to the park and it contained a false passport and a phone
Saito stabbed and shot Sandra Yamashiro and left her body in her car at a mall (above)
Saito is pictured in the early 80s after being acquitted by way of insanity
He added: ‘I don’t want to be in the state hospital. I’m not safe there.’
Saito didn’t have privileges to leave the hospital grounds without an escort. Repeated attempts by Saito to win such passes were rejected by the court.
He was also allowed to roam the hospital grounds unattended.
The state has placed seven hospital employees on unpaid leave while it investigates the escape. It’s also begun reviewing patient privileges and public visitation polices and has ordered more fencing.
Hawaii Department of Health Director Dr. Ginny Pressler said at a press conference Wednesday that Saito’s escape was a ‘result of a major breakdown” in staff protocols, procedures and guidelines at the hospital.
An initial internal investigation revealed that employees ‘may have inadvertently or purposely neglected’ to notify supervisors of the escape, Pressler told reporters.
Janice Okubo, spokeswoman for the Hawaii State Department of Health, told the AP last year the majority of those who escape are returned within a few days. However in 2009 one person escaped and was missing for nearly three years before being arrested.