LCCF escapee sentenced to state prison
Jan. 10—WILKES-BARRE — A man from Berwick who admitted to escaping from a work release detail at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility was sentenced to up to six years in state prison.
Judge David W. Lupas sentenced Robert Maverick Vargo, 25, to three-to-six years in prison on an escape charge. Vargo pled guilty to the charge Oct. 14.
County detectives in court records say Vargo walked away from a work detail while he was an inmate at the county correctional facility on July 17.
Vargo planned his escape, calling it "2.0," making jailhouse phone calls to his girlfriend, Amanda Saxer, 28, of Catawissa, in the days leading up to his flight.
Vargo and Saxer were apprehended nearly 700 miles away by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force in the Barefoot Landing area near Myrtle Beach, S.C., on July 20.
Saxer pled guilty to hindering apprehension and was sentenced by Lupas on Dec. 7 to six-to-23 months in the county correctional facility.
Lupas also ordered Saxer to pay the district attorney's office $1,407 to replenish the cost to extradite her from South Carolina.
In an unrelated case, Vargo was indicted by a federal grand jury in October on allegations he threatened President Joseph Biden, U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani and Congressman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, who was chairman of the Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal prosecutors alleged Vargo made the threats in a letter that was mailed while he was jailed at the county correctional facility.
