Last of Santa Ana Jail Escapees Caught Trying to Sell Gems

The inmate who last year allegedly masterminded one of the largest jailbreaks in Orange County history was arrested Saturday in Rapid City, S.D., while trying to pawn diamonds that law enforcement believe came from a Chicago jewelry store heist.

Michael Douglas Taylor, 35, was the last to be captured of the five inmates who escaped from Orange County Jail Nov. 20 by rappelling from the top of the four-story building in downtown Santa Ana. One of the men broke his leg and was captured immediately. Another turned himself in on Thanksgiving Day, and two more were captured two weeks later by FBI agents in Denver.

Taylor, who was using the alias Michael Anthony Prescott, was captured by police exactly six months to the day after he broke out of jail.

Credit for Television

FBI agent Bucky Cox credited the Fox network television program America’s Most Wanted for producing the first significant tip to Taylor’s whereabouts. After the May 7 broadcast showed a photograph of Taylor, FBI agents were told that he was using the alias Prescott, carrying a Nevada driver’s license and traveling in a van with his wife, Lisa, and their children, a boy, 6, and a girl, 2. The tipster also said Taylor was living in Portland, Me.

When agents checked the address in Portland, Taylor had already left.

Agents put all the new information about Taylor into the National Criminal Information Center network. That told police that the Michael Prescott who was trying to sell diamonds to a pawn shop dealer in Rapid City on Saturday was really Michael Taylor.

Rapid City Police Sgt. David Walton said Taylor’s wife, their two children, and another unidentified man who was with Taylor when he was arrested were all taken to the police department. Walton said he expected that Lisa Taylor would be arrested on suspicion of harboring a fugitive. The man, who was not identified, was being questioned, he said.

Police said Taylor has a history of crime. He was suspected of more than two dozen robberies in Southern California when he allegedly led the jailbreak last November. Police said that since then, Taylor is suspected of numerous jewelry store heists in Chicago, his home town. He was also wanted on a federal fugitive warrant.

Southland Robberies

Los Angeles Police Detective Jim Barry said he has connected Taylor to at least 10 robberies committed in 1988. In Huntington Beach last year, Taylor entered Designer Jewelers with two accomplices and stole more than $100,000 in gems, according to court records. When Taylor was arrested for that robbery, an officer involved in the arrest wrote, “Given a chance, he will escape.”

Authorities attributed dozens of armed robberies of jewelry stores to Taylor last year in Los Angeles and Orange counties. They say the stones and gold taken in the holdups may total $2 million.

Taylor had made the list of the FBI’ 10 most-wanted fugitives. Police searching his home on Puget Sound found a photograph of him posing in front of an FBI poster with his mug shot. An earlier newspaper story about Taylor said he has a reputation as a self-confident thrill seeker who has been an extraordinarily successful outlaw because he is also cunning and a perfectionist.