5 arrests in search for escaped inmates

“I am troubled by the amount of time it took for us to discover that three inmates from our maximum-security jail were unaccounted for for such a long period of time”, Hutchens said. Not all of those arrested are gang members, she said. Stewart questioned seven inmates who all said the same thing: they saw the escapees at the 5 a.m. count and then went back to sleep and did not see them again. “We’re continuing to look and see if they had inside help as well”, Hutchens, whose department runs the county jail system, told a news conference.

Breitbart News previously reported that 37-year-old Nayeri escaped January 22, along with 20-year-old Jonathan Tieu and 43-year-old Bac Duong.

Rackauckas’ office has seen a series of public problems in the past year, mostly stemming from what critics, including a commission called by the DA himself, have called its misuse of jailhouse informants in prosecuting cases.

Jail staff first realized something was wrong around 8 p.m. Friday during a nightly count of inmates that came up three short, according to the arrest warrants filed late Monday. Authorities were investigating whether the prisoners had help inside or outside the detention center, he said. Duong faced attempted murder and assault charges in the shooting of a man on his front porch. “Obviously this individual doesn’t want to be in jail”.

The reward for information leading to the arrests of the escapees rose to $200,000, dramatically upping the ante in a manhunt that has shown little progress since the spectacular escape five days ago.

The men made their way behind walls to an unguarded area of a roof atop the four-story jail building, moved aside razor wire and rappelled to the ground using bed linen, authorities said.

In 2008, Vietnam agreed to provide documents to help repatriate immigrants but only those who entered the USA since July 1995.

The tools used to cut through the bars have not been recovered, Hutchens said.

Sheriff’s officials said those in custody may not all have had direct ties to the escape, but that the investigation of the breakout led to their arrest.

It’s likely someone slipped them blueprints or told them how the bowels of the jail were laid out, he said.

During the news briefing, Hallock defended the Sheriff’s policy of holding inmates awaiting trial for violent crimes in the dormitory style housing.

The search, however, has centered on a Vietnamese gang based in nearby Westminster and Garden Grove, where the other two inmates have ties.

After two years later of worldwide persecution, Nayeri was finally arrested in the Czech Republic after having been in Iran.

Nayeri and the two other men were accused of burning the man with a blow torch and cutting off his penis before dumping him by the side of the road with a female friend.

“It’s not something we think could have occurred with a jail-made shank, if you will”, she said.

In addition to those two counts, jail personnel check the number of inmates against jail records at three other points during the day, Hallock said.

Tieu is an infamous Vietnamese gang member who was charged with attempted murder, murder, and shooting at an inhabited dwelling.

It’s unclear why the inmates – who are charged with violent felonies – were housed in the common dorm with dozens of others.

Lt. Jeff Hallock, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said there is no evidence so far that the trio had help from the inside but authorities know it’s a possibility.

Deputies will now be required to call those alternate locations to ensure an inmate is there as part of the “paper checks”, Hutchens said.