4 Inmates Escape From Pitchess Jail; 3 Recaptured

Four inmates walked away from the minimum-security facility at the Pitchess jail in a 24-hour period, authorities said Thursday, but three were recaptured within two hours of escaping.

Jose Ponce, 23, and Jesus Monguia, 24, escaped together from the facility about 3 a.m. Thursday, said Angie McLaughlin, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Employees of the jail’s East Facility reported seeing the two men running near the Dairy Road still inside the massive jail complex, McLaughlin said.

California Highway Patrol officers caught both men near Magic Mountain Parkway and The Old Road, about three miles from the facility, about 4:20 a.m., McLaughlin said. They were taken to the Men’s Central Jail and booked.

They were serving 180-day sentences, McLaughlin said, but an escape attempt brings an automatic sentence of one additional year.

On Wednesday, Robert Myers, 21, who was serving a 270-day sentence for car burglary, slipped away from a jail laundry detail about 1:30 p.m., McLaughlin said.

Myers was apprehended by Los Angeles police officers on the Golden State Freeway near Los Angeles about 5 p.m. after he stole a car from a Santa Clarita industrial park, authorities said.

Martin Guzman, 24, who fled from a paint crew about 3:45 p.m. the same day, is still at large, she said. He was serving a 90-day sentence for driving with a suspended license.