Santa Ana : Theo Lacey Escapee Is Soon Recaptured

A Santa Ana man serving time on drug charges escaped from the county’s minimum security Theo Lacy Branch Jail but was recaptured early Thursday at a friend’s house in Santa Ana, three hours after he got away.

Gerardo Nava, 25, was back in jail again Thursday--but not at the Theo Lacy facility for “low-risk prisoners,” Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said. This time he was at the county’s main jail in downtown Santa Ana.

Nava’s was the first escape from Theo Lacy this year.

Citing “security reasons,” Olson said that it would be several days before investigators would say how Nava got out of Theo Lacy. The 720-bed facility--a series of one- and two-story buildings in Orange--is surrounded by a high cinder-block wall or, in some locations, by a fence more than 10 feet high, topped by barbed wire.

Olson also said he could not say how deputies at the jail came to notice at about 11:27 p.m. Wednesday that Nava was gone.

Nava was arrested by Santa Ana police on Jan. 14 for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to jail until January, 1988, Olson said.

In 1986 there were seven escapes from Theo Lacy, with five prisoners returned to custody, Olson said.