The patient who escaped from the Arizona State Hospital on Saturday is a convicted felon with a history of disturbing sexual behavior.
Randy Layton has been convicted of multiple crimes that involve sexual conduct with children, court records show. Prosecutors have also petitioned the court several times since his prison sentence ended in 2011 to keep him committed at a special unit at the State Hospital for sexually violent persons.
Layton ran from a "regularly scheduled off-site treatment related activity" with the Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center on Saturday night, according to state officials.
Police were first alerted to the incident around 6:30 p.m. in the area of 34th Street and Thomas Road. Layton escaped while at the Red Wok Buffet by reportedly dodging hospital staff and removing a GPS tracker device that was later found near Central and Dunlap avenues.
Officials say he is considered a moderate risk for potential harm to others.
Layton was convicted of multiple crimes in Mohave County that involve sexual conduct with children. In one incident, Layton pled down to an aggravated assault charge after having a sexual relationship with a minor, officials said.
In another crime, he was accused of putting his hands down the pants of a pre-teen girl and touching her.
ABC15 also found Layton was charged with kidnapping and child endangerment in Clark County, Nevada.
Officials said Layton was pulled over by police in the Las Vegas area. He had taken the 12-year-old daughter of his then-girlfriend to Las Vegas without her mother’s permission. Police found the child had marijuana, which she said Layton had given to her.
Prosecutors in Mohave County have worked to block Layton’s release into the community since his prison sentence expired by successfully petitioning the court to keep him in the Arizona Community Protection and Treatment Center.
According to the state, the ACPTC is a civil commitment program that provides supervision, care and treatment to men adjudicated as Sexually Violent Persons (SVP). All admissions and re-admissions to, and discharges from, ACPTC are court ordered.
Escapes have been a past problem at the Arizona State Hospital.
In a 2013 report, an ABC15 investigation found 16 patients went missing from the hospital in a three-year period. One of the escaped patients murdered a woman.
The last hospital escape was in December 2015. The patient was found days later by police and returned to the hospital.
Contact ABC15 Investigator Dave Biscobing at dbiscobing@abc15.com.
