IRVINE : Inmate Escapes Low-Security Jail

An orange jumpsuit dropped near a trash bin was the only clue left by an inmate who escaped Friday morning from the James A. Musick Branch Jail, said a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Gerdardo Herber Solis, 22, apparently escaped from the low-security Irvine jail by climbing over a barbed-wire fence soon after breakfast, said Lt. Dan Martini.

Solis, a Costa Mesa resident who also goes by the name Walter Vasquez, was being held at the jail while waiting trial on a charge of possessing a stolen vehicle, Martini said.

The prisoner was found to be missing at the 7 a.m. inmate count. Solis’ jail jumpsuit was found next to the bin outside the jail mess hall.

At first, authorities feared that Solis might have climbed into the bin that is trucked about two miles to the Frank R. Bowerman landfill on Sand Canyon Road in Irvine, and that he may have been buried in trash at the landfill, Martini said.

But after two Sheriff’s Department bloodhounds at the landfill were unable to pick up the inmate’s scent, he said, investigators concluded it was more likely that Solis had simply climbed over the jail’s fence.

“He is now a fugitive, and we are actively looking for him,” Martini said.