Jail Escapees Caught After Freeway Chase
Two men charged with murder and a third man were captured Friday in La Conchita after escaping from Santa Barbara County Jail, allegedly committing a carjacking and leading police on a brief freeway chase.
Inmates Shancy Bowen, Marcus Adams and Mack Bonds were arrested 45 minutes after their 11:20 a.m. escape when their car got two flat tires after it hit a nail strip placed on the Ventura Freeway south of Palm Avenue, authorities said.
Bowen, 23, and Adams, 27, were awaiting trial on robbery and murder charges stemming from last summer’s holdup of the Vandenberg Credit Union in Lompoc in which a woman was killed. Bonds, 21, had been jailed on domestic violence and drug charges in an unrelated case.
The three men escaped after climbing through a chain-link roof covering an inmate exercise yard and then climbing down a large tree, said Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Peterson.
Bowen, Adams and Bonds--clad in blue jailhouse jumpsuits--allegedly pulled a woman from her car as she drove into a social services building a few blocks from the jail.
California Highway Patrol Officer Randy Owens spotted the car and alerted CHP officers in Ventura to lay out the nail strip, said CHP Officer Ray Schultz. The freeway chase reached speeds of 80 mph.
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