SANTA ANA, Calif.–Authorities say they have captured one of three inmates who escaped from a California jail last week while facing charges involving violent crimes.
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said 43-year-old Bac Duong was arrested Friday by police in Santa Ana, the same city where the trio made their elaborate escape from the county jail.
Hutchens says Duong flagged down a citizen on a street and said he wanted to turn himself in.
The men escaped early Jan. 22 from the Orange County jail after cutting a hole in a metal grate then crawling through plumbing tunnels and onto the roof of a five-story jail building.
They pushed aside barbed wire and rappelled down using a rope made of bed sheets.
Duong, Jonathan Tieu and Hossein Nayeri had all been awaiting trial for unrelated violent crimes.
They had been held in a dormitory with about 65 other men in Santa Ana, about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
A woman who taught English as a second language to one of the inmates has been booked as an accessory to the escape.
The sheriff’s spokesman says she played a significant role in the escape, including providing the men Google Earth maps of the entire jail complex. Hallock says the two exchanged letters of a personal nature, but he could not say if they were romantically involved.
Hallock says the woman denies providing tools.
