When you’re talking about any facility for people accused or convicted of violent crimes, the jailers’ main priority is simple: Keep the inmates locked up.
When that doesn’t happen, as was the case at the Central Men’s Jail in Orange County, California, the questions are anything but straightforward.
Authorities are still looking for the three escaped fugitives. They know a little about who they are and what they did to get out, but there remain several questions.
Who are the escapees?
Their names are Hossein Nayeri, 37; Jonathan Tieu, 20; and 43-year-old Bac Tien Duong. And their records are pretty grisly.
Jonathan Tieu, 20, is charged with murder and attempted murder for a gang-related attack. Authorities say he is a documented member of a Vietnamese gang.
Officials say 43-year-old Bac Tien Duong — who faces attempted murder charges — also has Vietnamese gang affiliations.
Then there’s Nayeri. The man he attacked survived, though how is almost miraculous. According to Orange County Lt. Dave Sawyer, the 37-year-old allegedly attacked a man, poured bleach on him, set the victim on fire, severed his penis and left him to die.
“He dumped the victim in the desert and he left him alone to die,” Sawyer said. “Fortunately he did not.”
Heather Brown, a deputy district attorney in Orange County, told CNN affiliate KCAL that Nayeri “is incredibly violent and incredibly dangerous.
“And he, now, has nothing to lose.”
Why were all these inmates together?
Because that’s how the Central Men’s Jail, which houses more than 1,000 sentenced and pretrial maximum security inmates, works.
Orange County Lt. Jeff Hallock said the escapees were part of a “tank of 68 inmates” being held together. “A large percentage” of those men, he explained, “are in for violent charges.”
This is the jail’s policy, but should it be? Local prosecutor Brown told KCAL, “It’s disconcerting to learn they were with all of these other hardened criminals who could collaborate and conspire to escape.”
When and how did they get out?
They escaped sometime “immediately after” a 5 a.m. physical check by guards on January 22. Hallock based this timeline on rough surveillance video of the facility’s roof that shows activity around that time.
It was apparently quick, but not necessarily easy. The sheriff’s spokesman said there were four to five security breaches after the trio “cut through a quarter-inch metal plate” to get out of their holding cell. From there, they made it through more steel and rebar and crawled through plumbing tunnels up to the roof.
In documents released Wednesday by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, investigators discovered jail issue blankets and sheets tied to a section of security bars inside a trap door on a ventilation shaft on the jail roof.
“One of the security bars was cut away and the section of the bar was on the ventilation shaft floor,” according to the document.
Also on the roof, investigators found a rope fashioned from bed sheets tied around a security gate separating the inmate recreation area from the roof’s outer edge, the documents said.
A brown paper bag found on the roof’s floor contained rope, a blanket and two pair of inmate issue sandals, the documents said. On the edge of the roof, a section of barbed wire that had been cut off lay near the brown paper bag.
And a breach was discovered in the ventilation security bars of a fourth floor plumbing tunnel, the documents said. The bars had been cut. Several ventilation louvers had been removed.
“A white bed sheet was tied into a sling to stand up as a step,” the documents said. “The step was tied to the bars and hanging approximately two feet below the opening of the ventilation tunnel. Another white bed sheet was tied to a bar on the right side. This was used as a way to pull yourself into the vent.”
To gain access to the plumbing tunnel, the documents said, the inmates cuts through air vents.
The inmates used sheets braided into ropes to rappel down four to five stories — about 50 feet.
“We do believe this was a well-planned, well-thought out escape,” Hallock told reporters.
When did guards know they were gone? And why did it take so long?
Not until after 8 p.m. that evening. Why? Part of it related to a roughly hour-long delay tied to a “disturbance” in which one deputy was “assaulted” — an incident that may or may not have happened to give the fugitives a little more time.
But the main reason for the 15-plus hour gap is because that’s how Central Men’s Jail operates.
There are two daily physical checks, meaning when guards account for every individual in person by using photos to check on inmates. The first is around 5 a.m., the other around 8 p.m.
There are three other less personal checks, Hallock explained, when guards count bodies and compare to the number on paperwork. Those counts come at 11 a.m., 4 p.m., and midnight.
Hallock also said guards can conduct shakedowns — to look for tools, for example — on inmates, saying these happen “randomly on a regular basis.”
Did the fugitives get help?
So far, no one who works at the jail has been suspended or been publicly suspected in helping the escapees.
Nor has anyone inside or outside of it — be it other inmates or members of the public — been charged in connection.
There was the aforementioned “disturbance” that authorities suspect happened to prolong the delay in looking for the men. But authorities haven’t determined, for sure, that those responsible knew anything about (and, therefore, effectively aided) the escape.
And, according to Hallock, “We don’t have any evidence from cameras that anybody picked them up.”
How many law enforcement personnel are involved in the manhunt?
Authorities had prepared and served “upwards of 30 search warrants,” said Sawyer, who is leading the Orange County Sheriff Department’s manhunt and investigation into the jailbreak itself.
Some 200 to 250 personnel “are actively searching for these three escapees,” according to Hallock.
Authorities urged citizens to play a part in the manhunt as well, appealing especially to the local Vietnamese community for tips. To spur such help, there’s a $50,000 reward for information leading to the fugitives (or $10,000 for each one).
“We know that somebody out there knows something,” Hallock said.
Have inmates escaped from this jail before?
Hallock said inmates have escaped five times (six when you include Friday) from the Central Men’s Jail since it opened in 1968.
The sheriff’s spokesman said the two most recent happened in 1986 and 1988.
The Orange County Register reported that in 1988, five inmates climbed over reinforced fencing, cut through wire and used braided sheets to rappel down the building. Four of them made it out, while the fifth was caught after breaking his leg.
There were other escapes in the 1980s, Hallock said, and one in 1968. The Register reported there were two escapes in 1968.
Do authorities think any of the fugitives left the state or the country?
Not yet, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worried about the possibility.
Two of them — Tieu directly and Duong as an associate — have ties to the same Vietnamese gang.
Nayeri is a native of Iran but has been a permanent resident of the United States since 1991.
“That is a concern,” Hallock said of the prospect the fugitives fled. “But there is no information that investigators have (as of midday Tuesday) to indicate that he’s left the country.”
