Santa Ana : County Jail Escapee Von Staich Still at Large
Ivan Von Staich, a convicted murderer who escaped from the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana on Jan. 26, remained at large Monday, Lt. Bob Rivas, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said.
Staich, 29, escaped with another inmate, Robert Joseph Clark, 23, of Palm Springs, when they overpowered a lone, unarmed sheriff’s deputy on the four-story jail’s rooftop recreation area. The deputy, whose name has not been released, was cuffed with his own handcuffs. Using a metal bar and an electrical cord obtained from a maintenance locker, the escapees pried up security fencing and rappelled down the side of the jail and fled on foot.
Clark was captured last Friday when deputies, acting on a tip, found him sitting by a motel pool at the Sixpence Inn, 1611 Laguna Road in Tustin, about three miles east of the jail. Though police said they had reason to believe Staich may also have been at the motel, he was not found in a room-by-room search.
Staich was convicted of attempted murder and second-degree murder for a 1983 attack with a hammer and a gun on his former girlfriend and her husband.
Clark was awaiting trial on murder and robbery charges at the time of his escape.
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