Recaptured Jail Escapee Is in Solitary Confinement

Escaped convict Kevin Jerome Pullum, who had a taste of freedom for 16 days before being captured Sunday afternoon, now faces up to a month of solitary confinement, no visitors or phone calls, and what Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials euphemistically call “a modified diet.”

In other words, Pullum will be eating meals designed specifically for inmates who are disciplinary problems, highlighted by a dinner concoction known as mystery meatloaf, which officials insist is nutritionally balanced. Pullum will probably be dining alone--in an area that officials refer to as “administrative segregation.”

Pullum, who escaped from the Twin Towers jail hours after being convicted of attempted murder July 6, faces a so-called sergeant’s court, according to Capt. Richard Adams, who oversees Men’s Central Jail. It is an internal jailhouse hearing conducted when inmates are accused of breaking the rules.

It is a safe bet that Pullum--that is, the man sheriff’s officials have in custody and whose fingerprints they say match Pullum’s--will be found guilty.

Pullum is expected to be arraigned today in Whittier Superior Court on one felony escape charge. He is also expected in Van Nuys Superior Court on Wednesday for sentencing in his attempted-murder case. As a third-striker, he faces up to life in prison for the May 1999 shooting of a man in Van Nuys in a drug deal gone sour.

The convict, caught Sunday afternoon on skid row a few blocks from the downtown jail, has refused to acknowledge that he is Pullum. But authorities, citing the fingerprints, are sure they have their man.

Pullum is being held in a one-man cell in the high-security unit at Men’s Central Jail.

To make his escape, he apparently wore his street clothes under his jail uniform--which he dumped in an unguarded tunnel--and walked out of Twin Towers with a fake employee badge bearing a picture of actor Eddie Murphy from “Dr. Dolittle 2.” The Sheriff’s Department has security camera videotapes that show Pullum leaving the facility at 7:51 p.m. July 6.

According to his girlfriend, Carmen Ford, Pullum met her at a downtown subway stop and the couple spent a relaxing weekend, eating chicken and Rice-A-Roni, shopping along Broadway and watching television. The Sheriff’s Department did not publicly announce Pullum’s escape until July 9.

After a frustrating couple of weeks, deputies said they finally learned last weekend that Pullum might be in the skid row area. Sunday, after investigating a report of a stolen car whose driver resembled Pullum, Los Angeles police officers saw another man they believed was the fugitive. Four LAPD officers surrounded the man, who gave them false information and nervously looked around to flee, the officers said.

They took the man into custody, and fingerprint scans revealed that the officers had, indeed, found Pullum.

Why Pullum remained in the Los Angeles area does not puzzle sheriff’s officials, who believe detectives successfully pressured his friends and relatives into avoiding him and his calls.

“I believe it was an aggressive investigation by the Sheriff’s Department. . . . That made it hard for him to contact all his associates,” said Sgt. Vincent Ramirez of the major crimes bureau.

Ramirez and other sheriff’s officials said they believe Pullum had no money and nowhere to go other than skid row.

At the time of his arrest, he was sitting on a milk crate and had a few containers of beer, which officials believe he was trying to sell to transients for some quick cash. He was unarmed when he was arrested.