Escapee Accuses a Guard of ‘Arranging’ Breakout

Convicted murderer Ivan Von Staich, on trial for a 1986 escape from Orange County Jail, accused a guard Friday of “arranging” the breakout.

Von Staich, representing himself, suggested in questioning Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Nin that the guard had made a deal for cash with another inmate, Robert Joseph Clark, to let the two men escape.

“That’s a lie,” Nin calmly responded to the accusation.

Von Staich, 32, is now serving a 37-years-to-life sentence for attacking a former girlfriend in 1983 with a claw hammer and fatally shooting her husband. He has also been convicted of escaping from Riverside County Jail while awaiting trial for arson in 1978.

In the latest case, he is accused of escaping from a rooftop recreation area of the main men’s jail in Santa Ana on Jan. 26, 1986, triggering a nationwide manhunt. Von Staich and a fellow inmate, Robert J. Clark, allegedly overpowered Nin, handcuffed him to a post, pried a hole through a wire fence, and used blankets and an electric cord to lower themselves down a wall of the 4-story jail.

Nin, who was unarmed and working alone at the time of the escape, testified Friday that he was escorting Clark, 23, of Palm Springs to the bathroom when Clark caught him in a chokehold and wrestled him to the floor.

Clark was captured at a Tustin motel about a week after the Jan. 26 escape. Von Staich was able to remain free for nearly a month before being taken into custody again at Hampden Jail in Springfield, Mass., where he was picked up for loitering. He was handed over to Orange County officials when jailers discovered his identity.

At the time of the escape in Orange County, Von Staich was awaiting sentencing for fatally shooting Richard Topper and attacking his wife, Cynthia Topper, in the couple’s bedroom after he kicked in the front door of their Santa Ana home.

Cynthia Topper has undergone two cranial surgeries to save her life, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. William L. Overtoom. She is still living in California, the prosecutor said.

“At times, she is very lucid, and other times she’s not all there,” Overtoom said.

After calling three law enforcement officers as witnesses, the prosecution rested its case Friday, a day that saw 14 jurors going in and out of the courtroom as both sides sought council with Orange County Superior Court Judge Linda Hodge McLaughlin.

Von Staich, wearing a bushy, chest-length beard and long hair clasped in a wavy pony tail that cascaded down the back of his sand-colored suit, declined to make his opening statement Friday, saying that his witnesses, many of whom are incarcerated, were not yet available.

“I am unable to go any further with this case,” Von Staich told the judge in the jury’s absence. He said that his typewriter was broken, preventing him from typing motions, and that he did not have an investigator to help him gather information and subpoena witnesses.

McLaughlin denied a motion to delay the trial after Von Staich claimed that he did not have enough time to call witnesses. But McLaughlin did recess the trial until Tuesday to give Von Staich time to summon his witnesses.

Duane Neary, appointed as advisory and stand-by council to Von Staich by McLaughlin, said the defendant should be able to call some of his anticipated 14 to 16 witnesses by Tuesday. At least four of Von Staich’s witnesses are inmates, including Clark, who is in San Quentin Prison, Neary said.

Von Staich is expected to claim that he was forced to escape to avoid repeated beatings by guards. He filed a $50-million lawsuit last year against Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, who runs the jail, and several deputies, claiming that they beat him without provocation.