Jail Escape Suspect Is Charged
A Newport Beach man was charged with several crimes Thursday in connection with an escape from an Orange County jail this week.
Mark Thomas Georgantas appeared in Harbor Justice Center on charges of felony escape without force, unlawful taking of a vehicle, felony evading while driving recklessly and misdemeanor hit and run. Bail was set at $100,000, and a pretrial hearing was set for Wednesday, a court spokeswoman said.
Georgantas, 41, is accused of escaping with an accomplice from the James A. Musick Branch Jail, a minimum-security facility in Irvine, on Tuesday while serving a yearlong sentence for fraud. Authorities say he and James William Costilow, 23, of Riverside managed to leave their barracks without setting off an alarm. They then climbed over a razor-wire fence into a field, and finally slipped through a storm drain after prying open its cover, officials said.
The men separated, and Georgantas fled in a rented car, authorities said. Eventually, the car rental company activated the car’s global-positioning-satellite system, which placed him in East Los Angeles. That sparked a 30-minute chase through Los Angeles County, ending with the arrest of Georgantas.
If convicted, he could get an additional four years and four months in prison, prosecutors said. Police were still looking for Costilow.
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