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Escapee and alleged accomplices charged

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Authorities charged a man who escaped from the Hawaii Correctional Center in Hilo with multiple offenses after he was recaptured Thursday night. 

Police also arrested and charged two other people, who allegedly helped Ryan James Jeffries-Hamar, 31, hide from a law enforcement task force.

Jeffries-Hamar is charged with first-degree escape, second-degree assault, second-degree robbery, kidnapping, second-degree unlawful imprisonment, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle, and third-degree criminal property damage and is being held without bail at the Hilo police cellblock pending his initial appearance Monday afternoon. 

Tyler John Tzovarras, also known as Tyler O’Neil, of Pahoa is charged with first-degree hindering prosecution for allegedly harboring and assisting Jeffries-Hamar while he was on the lam. He was also charged with contempt of court in connection with an outstanding warrant. His bail is set at $10,800. 

 Elizabeth Maile Medeiros,40, of Captain Cook, is also charged with hindering prosecution.

 Officers arrested Medeiros while she was at Circuit Court in Kealakekua on an unrelated matter. She remains in custody in lieu of $2,000 bail pending.

Police said Jeffries-Hamar and Jarvis Naoki Higa,35, escaped from the Hilo jail Dec. 5, 2012, after overpowering and assaulting a corrections officer and taking off in the jail librarian’s car.

A law enforcement task force captured Jeffries-Hamar and Tzovarras at 10:40 p.m. Thursday at a residence in the Hawaiian Beaches subdivision in Pahoa.

Higa was captured last Friday in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates subdivision in Kau by a team of about 15 officers.

Police said other people may be arrested and charged for helping the men.

Higa was being held at the jail awaiting trial on an attempted murder charge, police said. He allegedly shot a Hilo man in July.

Jeffries-Hamar was serving a sentence for a parole violation.

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