HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) – Authorities say they are working to ensure the safety of a victim’s family and witnesses after a man convicted of killing his former boss escaped from a Maryland prison.

Maryland Division of Correction spokesman Mark Vernarelli says Kandelario Garcia-Ramos jumped a fence and escaped Saturday from the medium-security Maryland Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, about 70 miles northwest of Baltimore.

He says no sightings were reported as of early Saturday evening.

Garcia-Ramos was serving the first year of a 40-year sentence for a December 2007 tire shop slaying.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney spokesman Ramon Korionoff says a few weeks after Garcia-Ramos was fired, he returned to the shop and fatally stabbed his former boss.