8 Flee in 3rd Escape From Jail in 4 Months

Seven inmates, including two murder suspects, were being sought on Wednesday after the third escape in four months from the South Bay Detention Facility here, authorities said.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said eight prisoners cut through bars on a jail window and climbed to freedom Tuesday night before a security guard hired to watch the outside of the jail could alert deputies inside.

The break was a replay of a March 7 escape in which 13 inmates used hacksaw blades to cut their way out in the largest jailbreak in San Diego County history.

One of the inmates who escaped Tuesday night was captured about 20 minutes later, but the other seven eluded a dragnet. Authorities speculated they may have headed for the Mexican border seven miles to the south.

Investigators said the inmates apparently had a hacksaw or some other tool smuggled inside and used it to cut through the bars.

“The inmates then forced out the plastic window and lowered themselves 35 feet to the ground on bedsheets tied together,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Bev Creighton. “It’s not been determined what tools were used to cut through the bars and how they were brought into the facility.”

Chula Vista police captured Johnny Smith, who had been awaiting transfer to state prison to serve a drug sentence.

Two San Diego men charged with murder, Manuel Salmaron, 29, and Yidefonso Barahona, 19, were among those still at large.

The others were identified as: Fernando Martinez, 24, San Diego, held on charges of drunk driving and a previous escape attempt; Jorge Renteria, 28, San Diego, held on a variety of charges including assaulting a police officer; Roberto Loza, 31, no known address, charged with 14 counts of robbery; Arturo Robles, 29, held for a prior escape, and Salvador Gutierrez, 25, burglary.

The inmates were being held in a “hard felony tank” in the crowded jail.

The jail sits below street level in downtown Chula Vista. Its location allowed someone outside to lower hacksaw blades on a string to the window where the inmates who escaped in March were able to snag them.

Four inmates from the March 7 escape remained at large Wednesday, as did two of seven inmates who fled Dec. 5 by breaking a window and squeezing through a narrow opening after greasing themselves with hand lotion.

The county hired private security guards to watch the outside of the jail after the March escape, and new steel bars were installed on outside windows to prevent inmates from having tools lowered to them.