Inmates who broke out of jail charged in escape

Jonathan Tieu, 20, of Fountain Valley, faces murder and attempted murder charges in connection with a gang hit, prosecutors said, and Bac Duong, 43, of Santa Ana, faces an attempted murder charge and was being held without bail on an immigration hold pending a possible federal deportation hearing.

The Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana is a maximum security facility that now houses about 1,200 inmates.

The three were also charged late Friday with a felony for the escape itself, a charge that could carry a three-year sentence for Tieu and a nine-year sentence for Duong because of a previous conviction. Three inmates, including a man suspected in a killing, cut through metal, crawled through plumbing tunnels, climbed a roof and rappelled down four stories to freedom using ropes made from bedsheets.

Authorities are still trying to determine what help the three fugitives received, but they believe a fight that occurred at the jail around 8 p.m. Friday night may have been a distraction to aid their escape.

Officials from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department are appealing to the public for any leads they can provide on the whereabouts of three risky escapees from the Orange County Jail.

Thirty-seven-year-old Hossein Nayeri has been charged with crimes that stem, according to NBC, “from a stomach-churning episode that could have been an episode from Breaking Bad“. The other three are a comparison of computer records with a “mod card”, which is essentially a jail ID card that lists a detainee’s charges and other information, Hallock said.

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.

“This was clearly a well thought out and planned escape”, Hallock said. The three inmates very likely had help from the inside to pull off their daring plan, but they also have the complacency of jail staff to thank, experts in jail and prison security said Monday. Court documents obtained by 48 Hours’ Crimesider allege that Tieu is in a gang known as “TRG”, or “Tiny Rascal Gang”. I can tell you that this is a very sophisticated-looking operation.

Authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the fugitives’ capture.

It took officials roughly 16 hours Friday to learn that the men were missing, and an additional three to confirm that they had indeed escaped. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department provided images of how the inmates escaped.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said there’s no indication any of them have left the country. “There are requirements that they get out and exercise from time to time”, Hutchens said.

Duong is charged with attempted murder, accused of shooting a 52-year-old man in the chest; he survived and identified Duong as his shooter.

Mr Tieu’s mother and sister appeared on local news station ABC7 on Sunday to plead with him to give himself up.

Assuming prisons don’t just get rid of blankets all together, Instructables contributor Jesse Hensel think your best method is to tear the linen into strips and then braiding yourself a rope. He was arrested in Prague in November 2014 while changing flights from Iran to Spain to visit family.

Authorities said Nayeri and two other people kidnapped a marijuana dispensary owner in Newport Beach in 2012 by zip-tying his wrists, beating him and putting him in a van. “Don’t let this drag on”, Tieu’s sister Tiffany Tieu said through tears.

Hossein Nayeri, 37, had been held without bond since September 2014 on charges of kidnapping, torture, aggravated mayhem and burglary.