[Breaking news update, posted at 3:14 p.m. ET]
Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu were captured Saturday morning after a woman in San Francisco alerted police officers that she had seen a stolen white van that the two men who escaped from jail last week were using, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens told reporters.
[Previous story, posted at 3 p.m. ET]
The two remaining fugitives from a California jailbreak last week are in custody, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday on Twitter.
The department said details on how Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu were detained will be discussed at a noon (3 p.m. ET) news conference.
Police in San Francisco have the two in custody, according to the tweet. Officer Grace Gatpandan said the pair were captured just before 9 a.m. near Golden Gate Park.
A third escapee, Bac Tien Duong, 43, had been taken into custody in Santa Ana on Friday morning after he asked a worker at a auto parts store to call police.
The trio likely broke out of a maximum-security jail in Santa Ana after a 5 a.m. headcount January 22, but it wasn’t until more than 15 hours later that authorities discovered the sophisticated escape.
The inmates used tools to cut through security bars in a plumbing tunnel and into air vents. They also apparently used sheets braided into ropes to rappel down four to five stories — about 50 feet — from the roof of the jail.
It was the first time anyone had escaped from the jail since 1988.
Tieu, 20, was in jail awaiting trial on a murder charge and attempted murder in an allegedly gang-related attack. Authorities say he is a member of a Vietnamese gang.
Nayeri, 37, has been accused of kidnapping and attacking a man, pouring bleach on him, setting the victim on fire, severing his penis and leaving him to die in the desert, authorities have said. The man survived.
Duong was to be tried on an attempted murder charge.
Each has pleaded not guilty.
A woman who taught classes in English as a second language at the Central Men’s Jail was arrested Thursday in connection with the escape.
Nooshafarin Ravaghi, 44, will face a charge of being an accessory to a felony, Hallock said. It is unclear whether Navaghi has an attorney.
She has denied giving the escapees tools, but has admitted giving a Google Earth image, on paper, showing the area around the jail complex, to Nayeri, according to Hallock.
Authorities had offered a $200,000 reward for information leading to the fugitives’ capture.
Orange County Sheriff Lt. Jeff Hallock said Friday that Nayeri and Tieu were spotted in San Jose a day earlier and authorities believed they were in a stolen white van. San Jose is about a 6½-hour drive from Santa Ana.
