Man Fleeing Life Term for Santa Ana Murder Caught

An escaped Orange County murderer and another fugitive were captured early Sunday, a day after the pair broke out of a medium-security prison in Norco, officials said.

Michael Ramon Bradley, 38, was fleeing a life sentence for a shotgun stickup in 1977 at a Santa Ana market that left a woman dead and her son wounded.

Bradley and sex offender Gregory Smith, 40, were arrested without incident about 3:15 a.m. off California 71 in western Riverside County, according to Department of Corrections Capt. Tim Busby.

The inmates got out Saturday between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., removing a metal screen over a dormitory window and cutting through two chain-link fences, said prison spokeswoman Lt. Cynthia Y. Tampkins.

Both were returned to Norco but were to be transferred to the California Institution for Men in Chino, Busby said.

Bradley was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, robbery, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon at the First Street Food Market in March 1977, according to prison officials.

Smith was serving a 35-year sentence for robbery, burglary, sodomy with force and oral copulation in Los Angeles County, according to prison records. He has been incarcerated since 1987.

The California Rehabilitation Center remained locked down Sunday as prison officials continued to investigate the escape, Busby said.

A search began early Saturday when the escape was discovered. Prison officials turned on a hilltop strobe light and a siren at 5:45 a.m. to alert residents within a mile of the facility.

Bradley had been at Norco since July 1991, and Smith was transferred there in August. They were the first escapees since three inmates got out in 1993.

The prison houses about 2,800 felons and 2,500 people taking part in drug treatment as an alternative to criminal prosecution.