UPDATE: Officials say Brian Robert Lewis was recommitted to the VPRJ around 6:55 p.m. Tuesday. Lewis turned himself in to the lobby at VPRJ just hours after he was mistakenly released.
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) — Authorities on the Peninsula are searching for an inmate accused of strangulation, sexual battery and malicious wounding after he was mistakenly released from Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail on Tuesday.
Jail Superintendent Colonel Roy Witham said he was still trying to figure out how the error occurred as of Tuesday afternoon, and that law enforcement was working to find Brian Robert Lewis, of Hampton.
Lewis was admitted to VPRJ on April 30 after being charged with felony counts of malicious wounding, strangulation and sexual battery, along with misdemeanors of damaging a phone line and trespassing. He was being held without bond and was scheduled to appear in court on January 20, 2022.
No other details have been released, but Witham said once a review of the error was complete, the jail would “take all necessary steps to perfect our processes and procedures.”
