Escapee From Orange County Jail Captured

An accused killer who had escaped from Orange County Jail was captured Friday as he sat by the swimming pool at a Tustin motel, authorities said.

Robert Joseph Clark, 23, of Palm Springs, was arrested at Sixpence Lodge in Tustin, about three miles east of the jail where he and Ivan Von Staich, 29, escaped on Sunday, spokesmen for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Tustin police said.

Authorities searched door to door at the motel for Staich, a convicted murderer.

An unidentified citizen spotted Clark in the area of the motel Friday and contacted Tustin police, Sheriff’s Lt. Bob Rivas said. Clark was located shortly before noon Friday and was arrested without incident, Rivas said.

There had been reason to believe that Staich was also staying at the motel, police said.

Overpowered Deputy

Clark and Staich escaped Sunday from the rooftop recreation area of the Orange County Jail, where they overpowered a lone, unarmed sheriff’s deputy. They used a metal bar and electric cord from a maintenance locker to dislodge a security screen and rappel down to a one-story roof below.

At the time of his escape, Clark was awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges stemming from the January, 1984, slaying of David Martinez, whose body was found dumped in an unincorporated area near Irvine.

Staich, who escaped once before from Riverside County Jail, was convicted in December, 1985, of the attempted murder of his former girlfriend, Cynthia Topper, and the second-degree murder of her husband, Robert.