Page 5 - Aruba Today

U.S. NEWS A5
Tuesday 2 February 2016

Sheriff: Fugitives had outside aid, kidnapped cab driver

AMY TAXIN driver spent three nights at with felony counts of pos- Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens is all smiles as she an-
GILLIAN FLACCUS a motel in Southern Califor- session of a weapon in a swers questions about the capture of both outstanding jail es-
Associated Press nia before they drove 400 place of custody, carrying capees Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu are in the custody
SANTA ANA, California miles (643 kilometers) north or sending a useful aid to of the San Francisco during a news conference outside Orange
(AP) — Three inmates who to the San Francisco Bay escape from a jail or prison County Sheriff’s Department headquarters in Santa Ana on Sat-
pulled off an intricate get- Area in the taxi and van. and aiding escape, with urday, Jan. 30, 2016.
away from a California jail Nayeri and Duong later a criminal enhancement
had outside help from a had a fist fight in a San Jose for being in possession of Associated Press
man who slipped them es- motel room over whether a dangerous or deadly
cape tools and gave them to kill the taxi driver, Hallock weapon. At 9:30 p.m. — as guards driver still a hostage.
a ride to safety before they said. Nayeri wanted to kill He will be arraigned next realized they were miss- It was the first escape in
kidnapped a taxi driver the cab driver and Duong month and has not en- ing — the trio took a cab nearly three decades from
at gunpoint and held him did not, authorities believe. tered a plea. He is free on to a Target in suburban Los the California facility built in
captive for a week while When Nayeri and Tieu left $300,000 bail. Angeles. They shopped for 1968.
arguing over whether to kill to get the van’s windows In their detailed account unknown items then kid- The three men were all
him, authorities said Mon- tinted later the next day, of the escape, authorities napped the taxi driver, au- housed together in a hold-
day. Duong drove back to said the trio waited until thorities said. ing tank with 65 other in-
The details emerged at southern California with the after a 5 a.m. head count The next day, Duong stole mates when they escaped
news conferences by pros- cab driver and surrendered on Jan. 22 then slipped the white GMC van dur- and were awaiting trial on
ecutors and the Sheriff’s Friday at an auto repair through a hole they had ing a test drive and the separate charges.
Department that answered shop in Orange County just sawed in a metal grate inmates got haircuts be- Hallock said the three in-
many of the remaining miles from the jail. that led to a plumbing tun- fore checking into a hotel mates will now be held in
questions surrounding the Nayeri and Tieu were ar- nel. in Rosemead with the cab isolation cells.q
escape and eight-day rested Saturday in San From there, they crawled
manhunt that ended with Francisco after a man spot- through piping inside the
the capture of all three fu- ted the stolen van near a jail walls to reach the roof,
gitives. Whole Foods Market park- pushed aside barbed wire
Hossein Nayeri, who was ing lot. and rappelled down four
awaiting trial on charges Prosecutors said Monday stories to freedom using a
of torture and kidnapping, they would not charge rope made of bed linens.
planned the escape for a teacher at the jail who By 5:15 a.m., they were out-
five months before co-con- sheriff’s investigators sus- side and picked up. They
spirator Bac Duong was pect of helping Nayeri, an bounced from one home
booked into Central Men’s Iranian-born former Marine. to the next that day, mov-
Jail in Orange County in As part of his plan, Nayeri ing among three different
December and helped cultivated a relationship Orange County cities.
with an outside contact, with 44-year-old Noosha-
sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Hallock farin Ravaghi, an Iranian-
said. born woman who taught
Jonathan Tieu, who was English as a second lan-
awaiting trial on a gang-re- guage to jail inmates, au-
lated murder charge, also thorities said.
joined the plot, authorities At some point, she provid-
said. ed him with a Google Earth
“This took a while,” Orange map that showed an aerial
County Sheriff Sandra view of the entire jail com-
Hutchens said. “To defeat plex, Hallock said.
these security systems, to Ravaghi was arrested last
defeat these metal grates, week and booked on sus-
to defeat these 1-inch bars, picion of being an acces-
it took some time.” sory to a felony, but District
Once out, the three were Attorney Tony Rackauckas
picked up by an accom- said Monday there wasn’t
plice and driven to safety. enough evidence to hold
That night, Duong kid- her and said he’s asked
napped a taxi driver at investigators to keep dig-
gunpoint and stole a van ging. Loc Ba Nguyen, who
the following day in Los An- knew Duong, visited the jail
geles, authorities said. several times and provided
The fugitives and the cab the men with items to aid
their escape, Hallock said.
He also picked them up af-
ter they escaped, he said.
It wasn’t immediately clear
what tools Nguyen might
have provided or what his
relationship was with Du-
ong, but authorities said he
did not work inside the jail.
Nguyen has been charged