Baltimore ? A man serving three life terms conned his way out of a Baltimore prison with help from his cellmate, an extraordinary escape that raised questions about Maryland’s procedures for releasing inmates.

Raymond T. Taylor, 26, of New York, successfully posed as a cellmate he never should have been paired with in the first place — a man who happened to resemble him closely, corrections officials said Friday. He escaped Thursday afternoon and was recaptured Friday morning in West Virginia.

Taylor was convicted in 2005 of what prosecutors called the attempted “execution-style” slayings of his ex-girlfriend and her two teenage daughters. All three victims survived gunshot wounds to the head.