Baffling Escape of Inmate Puts Many on Edge

It is a nightmare for prosecutors, witnesses and jurors alike: A violent defendant they just helped convict, a third-striker facing a long time behind bars, suddenly escapes.

As authorities pressed their search Monday for Kevin Jerome Pullum, prosecutors and police expressed outrage that the maximum-security prisoner could slip away without a trace from the Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail.

“This guy’s dangerous,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jane Winston, who prosecuted the 31-year-old Van Nuys resident for shooting a man six times.

Pullum’s disappearance became known at the downtown jail Friday, within hours of his conviction in Van Nuys Superior Court of attempted murder.

Winston said she was unnerved by the prospect of Pullum, who had represented himself in court and squared off against her, being on the loose. “I don’t want him coming after me and shooting me,” she said.

The Los Angeles police detective who led the investigation said Monday that the LAPD has notified witnesses against Pullum about the escape. “I gave them the good news and the bad news--that he was convicted. . . . The bad news was he also got out,” Det. Dan O’Hanian said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which was responsible for keeping Pullum locked up, said Monday it had learned little about the escape.

“I have no idea how he got out, and that bothers me,” said Chief Taylor Moorehead, who supervises the jail system. “It’s our fault until we find him. . . . Our system broke down. It obviously failed.”

Moorehead ruled out the possibility of a paperwork mistake. “This inmate was not an erroneous release,” he said. “He escaped.”

Records show that deputies checked Pullum into the Van Nuys court lockup, where he presumably remained until a bus ferried him back to jail, Moorehead said. “His wristband is checked, he’s chained up, and he’s put on the bus.”

Then at the downtown jail, Pullum would have been checked off again as he stepped from the bus, Moorehead said.

Pullum was last seen--or, at least, his identifying wristband was electronically spotted--at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the jail’s reception center. “He was scanned in. We have proof of that,” Moorehead said.

But by 8 p.m., deputies noticed that Pullum was missing.

“There’s still a chance he’s in the [jail] complex somewhere, hiding, but my feeling is that he got away,” Moorehead said.

Investigators from the department’s Major Crimes Unit are “still pursuing hot leads,” said Deputy Rich Pena. “They believe he’s still in the area.”

The department released a description of the fugitive Monday. Pullum is 5 feet 10 and weighs 165 pounds. He is said to have used the aliases Michael Hill and Eric Dwayne Shelby.

The escapee had represented himself twice before in criminal trials, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. And those who watched him in Van Nuys court said he did a decent job as his own lawyer. Winston said, “He seemed to have a good grasp of the legal system. The jurors thought he did a good job.”

But the jury found him guilty of the May 1999 shooting in Van Nuys. With three earlier robbery convictions, Pullum faces up to life in prison for the attempted murder.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge John Fisher, who presided over Pullum’s trial, declined to comment. But James Bascue, presiding judge of Los Angeles County Superior Court, said judges are highly concerned about the situation.

“We would like to find out how he was released,” Bascue said.