Leader of 1988 Jailbreak Gets Life in Prison Plus 25 Years

The leader in a five-man escape from Orange County Jail two years ago was sentenced to life in prison plus 25 years Thursday for kidnaping a Santa Ana man and taking his car during the escapees’ getaway.

But Michael D. Taylor’s days in court are far from over.

Taylor, 38, whose capture in South Dakota was aided by the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” faces murder charges in Los Angeles County and charges in Alameda County involving a kidnap/rape following his jail escape, as well as the original charges involving seven robberies that first landed him in County Jail.

Should he ever resolve those cases, Taylor faces parole violation charges in Illinois and is a suspect in robberies in Colorado, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

“This guy, from the day he turned 18, has been totally sociopathic,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Cafferty.

Superior Court Judge Manuel A. Ramirez told Taylor, who also goes by the name of Anthony Michael Gianelli, that he would have sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole if he could have. The judge gave Taylor the stiffest sentence possible--a life term that permits parole--plus 25 years after that, five years for each of Taylor’s five previous robbery and burglary convictions.

While Taylor did not speak at his sentencing hearing, he could be heard mumbling complaints about the television cameras present in the courtroom for Fox Network’s “America’s Most Wanted.”

Taylor and four other inmates escaped from jail on Nov. 20, 1988, by descending from the roof using knotted bedsheets while one of the jail deputies was missing from his post.

An individual who lived near the jail called 911 to report seeing one of the men peeling out of his jail clothes. Reports showed, however, that it would be another 20 minutes before any officials discovered that a jailbreak had taken place.

One deputy was fired over the incident, and a second one was suspended. One escapee broke a leg during the descent from the roof, and he and a second man were caught immediately.

Taylor and two other escapees stripped out of jail clothes and down to boxer shorts and shirts and then approached Donald Lamb in his carport at an apartment complex on North Bristol Street. They told him they needed a ride to a hospital where a friend had just been taken. When Lamb showed reluctance to help them, one of the three put a jail-made knife to his throat and threatened to kill him.

Lamb testified that somewhere in Garden Grove they finally let him stop the car and he managed to escape. He also said he asked them to leave him alone but one of those with Taylor responded by kicking him in the head. Lamb said he then ran, fearing for his life, and the three drove off in his car. It was found later in Westminster, Colo.

Taylor’s attorney, Martin Kossack, argued that what happened did not amount to an actual kidnaping since Taylor and the others only wanted the car. At one point in his legal papers, Kossack told the court: “It was the victim who abandoned the vehicle to the three. (Taylor) did not, at any time, attempt to rob Mr. Lamb of his vehicle.”

Cafferty said after the sentencing Thursday that the defense seemed to be arguing that “law-abiding citizens are supposed to just cave in to lawless people.”

Taylor told The Times Orange County Edition in a jailhouse interview that he felt compelled to escape from the jail because of inmate beatings and its poor health conditions.

“I was dying there; I was sick all the time,” Taylor said.

During the interview, Taylor admitted to a number of robberies after his escape but denied a rape charge.

At his trial, he testified that Lamb had willingly driven the three.

The other two involved in the Lamb kidnaping were caught within weeks of the escape.

Taylor, however, was not caught until six months later, after he was featured on the Fox program.

The show aired on May 7, 1989, and led to a tip that he and his girlfriend had been seen in Portland, Me. The FBI learned that he was going by the name of Michael A. Prescott.

Subsequently, a jeweler in Grand Rapids, S.D., called police and said that someone trying to sell him some jewels had seemed suspicious and that his name was Michael Prescott. Because of the TV show, the Prescott alias had been entered in the national crime data computer, and Taylor was soon arrested.