Sex Offender Escapes at San Quentin

A convicted sex offender who scaled a razor-wire fence in a predawn escape from San Quentin State Prison remained on the loose Monday after authorities--in a case of mistaken identity--arrested his brother and prematurely reported his recapture.

“He apparently looks a lot like his brother. He was taken to jail and fingerprinted and we discovered it was not him,” said Stephen Greene, assistant secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency in Sacramento. “The other guy’s still on the loose.

“This happens occasionally. Either the brother was there as a decoy or in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t know which one it was at this time.”

The mix-up led officials to announce that they had recaptured Eduardo Mariscal at his girlfriend’s home in Santa Rosa, about 50 miles north of the prison and about 12 hours after he escaped.

“We are out actively looking for him,” said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon.

Investigators were concentrating their search in Marin County, where the prison is located, and in neighboring Sonoma County, chasing leads that Mariscal has friends and family in the area, and that his girlfriend had recently sent him a letter breaking off their relationship, officials said.

Mariscal, 31, was being housed in a medium-security, dormitory-style cellblock with hundreds of others, and somehow managed to walk out of the building unnoticed between the 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. head counts, said Crittendon.

About 200 feet away, near a perimeter fence that is 14 feet high and topped with razor wire, gloves and a blanket were found. Officials believe he threw the blanket over the razor wire before scaling the fence.