2 Inmates Walk Away From Downtown Jail in Second Escape in 2 Days

For the second time in two days, two inmates escaped from County Jail downtown. The pair vanished Monday from a freight dock where they were unloading supplies for the jail.

The inmates were identified as Steven Michael Walker, 27, who was in custody for false impersonation, possession of stolen property and car theft, and Wayne Allen Thrash, a 27-year-old in custody for grand theft and petty theft.

Walker and Thrash, described as jail trusties, walked away from the jail work site at about 3:10 a.m., and were last seen a block away, walking on foot near the 200 block of B Street.

The escapes followed a more-daring jail break Sunday morning, when two other inmates--one convicted of murdering a child and the other described as a proven escape artist--flung an improvised rope from the roof of the downtown jail.

As of Monday evening, all four inmates remained at large. Officials said the jail was put in a lockdown status, that outside visits were canceled and that all inmates were restricted to cells and day rooms.

According to Detective Edward Augustine of the sheriff’s jail investigations detail, Walker and Thrash were minimum security trusties who were working in the loading dock under the supervision of civilian jail employees. Augustine said no regular deputies were available at that early morning time to monitor their work activity.

Inmates Walked Away

The detective said that Walker and Thrash simply walked away from the job site next to the downtown jail. Officials later found discarded jail clothing.

Walker, 27, was described as a black male, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 200 pounds, with a scar on his left cheek. Authorities said he was known to frequent the Chula Vista and Logan Heights areas.

Thrash, 29, was described as a white male, 6 feet tall, 205 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, and with a scar on his chin and under his nose. Officials said he frequented the La Mesa and Logan Heights areas.

In the earlier escape, which occurred sometime before 10 a.m. Sunday morning, escape artist John J. Pugh, 37, and Leon Morris, 35, were discovered missing during a head count of 11 high-security inmates who had used an outside exercise area atop the eight-story downtown jail.

Investigators said that Pugh and Morris forced a hole in the chain link fence that surrounds the rooftop exercise area and used a makeshift rope to lower themselves 30 feet to the roof of the adjoining county courthouse. From there, they crawled into an unstaffed Sheriff’s Department office in a wing of the courthouse, then ran down a courthouse hallway and fled the complex.

Both escapees were awaiting transfer from the central jail to a state prison.

Sentenced in Murder Case

Morris, of Spring Valley, was sentenced Friday to up to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son. He was convicted in December, 1987, of second-degree murder in the death of Todd Allen Williams, who died of multiple injuries from a blunt object, officials said.

Pugh, of San Diego, was convicted of burglary and possession of stolen property, and sentenced to six years in prison. He also received an additional two years in state prison for his July 17 escape from the El Cajon jail.

While awaiting sentencing then on his burglary conviction, Pugh used a similar rope made of bedsheets to lower himself from the seventh floor of the East County Regional Center in El Cajon in what officials said was the first successful breakout in the El Cajon jail’s eight-year history.

He was recaptured three weeks ago by San Diego police.

The last attempted escape at the downtown jail was several years ago, but specific records weren’t immediately available, authorities said.