Santa Ana Escapee Is Recaptured

An inmate who escaped from an Orange County Sheriff’s Department van last week in his underwear was captured late Tuesday near Whittier, authorities said.

James David Caylor, 33, was taken into custody at 9:10 p.m. when he arrived at a house, Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Abbott said. Caylor offered no resistance, Abbott said.

The house had been under surveillance by Orange County Sheriff’s deputies, based on leads developed after his escape. Abbott would say only that it was “not the home of a relative.”

Caylor, a parolee whose last known address was a Buena Park motel, had been in jail awaiting court appearances on charges of possession of marijuana and drugs for sale. He had been arrested June 2 on a narcotics warrant and was being held without bail because of a parole violation at the time of his escape, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Caylor was returning to the central jail in Santa Ana in a Sheriff’s Department van at the time of his escape Friday afternoon. Authorities said he managed to pry loose a panel in the van and triggered the locking mechanism to open the door as the vehicle was stopped in heavy traffic at Bristol and 17th streets in Santa Ana.

Caylor then shed his bright orange jail-issue jump suit and was last seen running from a nearby shopping center wearing only underwear and tennis shoes.