Murder Charges to Be Sought Against Man Who Fled From Halfway House : Slaying: He had been sent to a low-security facility despite a lengthy criminal record. Police say he killed a bank customer a week after his disappearance.

A man who escaped from a halfway house and is suspected of later killing a Lancaster bank customer had been sent to the low-security facility after serving one year of a three-year state prison sentence, despite having a lengthy juvenile criminal history, records show.

State prison officials and the operator of the Van Nuys halfway house defended their handling of Christopher A. Mann, 19, of Palmdale, who was arrested Sunday.

But an angry sheriff’s homicide official disagreed, saying Mann had “a proven track record that he couldn’t be trusted.”

Sheriff’s officials said they expect to seek murder and other charges today against Mann in connection with the March 5 shooting of Hans Christian Herzog, 46, of Lancaster near an automatic teller machine at a Bank of America branch on Lancaster Boulevard. Mann remained in custody Wednesday without bail.

Homicide Lt. William Sieber said Herzog’s death stemmed from a combined carjacking and robbery attempt. Mann allegedly took Herzog’s car but got no money. Sieber also said Mann earlier had driven to other banks looking for robbery opportunities.

Sieber said Mann would still have been in prison serving a three-year sentence handed down in January, 1992, for felony joy-riding if he had not been sent to Orion Re-Entry, a low-security private facility in Van Nuys. Mann escaped from there Feb. 26, four days after arriving and one week before the slaying.

“How the hell did he qualify for a community release program? How do you put people like that out on the streets?” asked Sieber, who has been supervising the investigation of Herzog’s death. “The whole community release thing needs to be looked at.”

Corrections officials, however, said inmates are screened before they are put into such facilities. People convicted of two violent crimes, sex offenders and arsonists may not participate, they said. Mann fit their criteria.

“When we reviewed the paperwork, he looked like a safe bet,” said Jerry Di Maggio, an administrator with the state Department of Corrections. “Ninety-five percent of the time we’re right, and 5% of the time we’re wrong.”

Bari Caine-Lombarto, director of Orion Re-Entry, would not comment on Mann’s case but said offenders sent to the facility cannot have a history of escapes from work camps or prisons. “There can be nothing to indicate that they’re a flight risk.”

Records show Mann’s December, 1991, conviction--which led to his stay at Orion--came after he stole two cars belonging to his parents in October, 1991, and led sheriff’s deputies on a pursuit. At the time, Mann had been placed under house arrest at his parents’ home by youth authorities for prior problems.

Citing that episode and his “serious juvenile criminal record,” a court evaluation at the time said Mann’s likelihood of making court appearances was unknown.