A Con’s Inside Story of ‘Dr. Dolittle’ Breakout

Attempted murderer Kevin Pullum’s quirky escape from the Los Angeles County Jail--in which he apparently used a fake ID with actor Eddie Murphy’s picture--was improvised at the last minute, according to a fellow inmate who provided details to the Sheriff’s Department.

The inmate, convicted carjacker Rodolfo Anderson, gave an insider account of the escape in a jailhouse interview with The Times this week. He said the plan was hatched while Pullum was waiting to be bused back to the jail after a Van Nuys jury convicted him of attempted murder.

The fake ID was constructed, he said, in a Van Nuys courthouse holding cell, out of a manila envelope, a newspaper ad from “Dr. Dolittle 2” and the clear plastic cover of a trial transcript. The supplies were available because the two defendants were serving as their own attorneys.

The newspaper “had some other color photographs, but I thought that Eddie Murphy resembled Kevin the most,” Anderson said. He added that he loaned Pullum his glasses so he would look more like the actor, who is bespectacled in the ad.

Sheriff’s officials said Wednesday that Anderson gave them essentially the same account and that they believe he helped Pullum in his brazen breakout in July. Anderson, they say, provided the details that led them to study jail videotapes that showed Pullum leaving through an employee exit while wearing a makeshift badge.

Pullum, 31, is due back at the Van Nuys courthouse today to be sentenced on the attempted-murder conviction, a third-strike felony. He reports back to a downtown Los Angeles court on the escape charges next week.

Pullum walked away from the Twin Towers jail on July 6 and was on the run for 16 days before LAPD officers arrested him near downtown Los Angeles.

Sheriff’s officials confirmed Wednesday that Pullum and Anderson were chained together as they rode the bus back from Van Nuys to downtown the day of the escape.

Pullum’s defense attorney, Dermot Givens, acknowledged that Anderson and Pullum were together that day, but said he does not believe they devised a plan to break out of jail. “Mr. Anderson is a complete liar,” Givens said. “I don’t know when they were together long enough to plan this.”

Givens maintains that Pullum was released from jail, rather than escaping. Sheriff’s officials say the theory is preposterous.

Anderson said he befriended Pullum on repeated bus trips from jail to the Van Nuys courthouse. When Anderson saw that Pullum was distraught over his guilty verdict, he said, he told him his idea for fleeing.

“He never planned on escaping until a few minutes after he got the verdict,” Anderson said. But after being convicted, Anderson said, “Kevin was intent on going home. I told him if he wanted to get out, I knew how to get out.”

Sheriff’s Det. Robert Barrios said authorities agree that the breakout was spontaneous. “Once Pullum learned that he was convicted, he felt that it was time that he try to escape,” Barrios said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Rick Adams said he doesn’t believe the inmates truly thought the plan would work. “But the moon and the stars must have been just right,” Adams said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

According to Anderson, the pair frantically worked out the details in the holding cell in Van Nuys and on the bus trip back to jail.

Once back at the jail’s Inmate Reception Center, the men had their identification wristbands scanned, he said.

Pullum discarded his jail clothes in the tunnel connecting the reception center and Twin Towers. Underneath was a flowered shirt and beige pants that he had worn to the court appearance where he had represented himself.

The tunnel, also used by civilians, has no security cameras.

Pullum was then videotaped by department security cameras as he awaited an elevator, carrying a folder and wearing glasses and an ID badge. Pullum went downstairs and back up again on the elevator before walking past the security booth unnoticed.

Anderson said he decided not to try to escape himself because he didn’t think he would be convicted in his own felony case.

Anderson said sheriff’s officials came to him after Pullum’s escape and asked him if he knew anything about what happened. He originally denied any involvement. But in later interviews, sheriff’s sources said, Anderson told them about the badge and the planned escape route. Anderson also told detectives about how he helped Pullum escape and how it was his idea from the start, they said.

“I knew it was just a matter of time before the detectives knew of my involvement in the Houdini act,” Anderson said.

He said that in exchange, he thought he wouldn’t be prosecuted. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Keri Modder said he could still face charges for aiding and abetting an escape. Anderson, who himself is a third-striker, is due to be sentenced in his carjacking case in October.

Anderson said he does not plan to testify against Pullum.

He said he wanted to tell his story because he believed it could help in his appeal, and because he was angry with sheriff’s deputies for searching the houses of his relatives in looking for Pullum.

Anderson said he helped Pullum escape because of the challenge. “It was like a chess game,” he said.

“I knew the deputies were finally going to catch up with Kevin. But it was the thrill of the game.”