4 Escape From Riverside County Jail Near Murrieta; 3 Captured

Using knotted bedsheets, one inmate accused of murder and three others escaped from a Riverside County jail near Murrieta around midnight Monday and triggered a countywide manhunt and an internal investigation into jail security.

Three of the four were captured in a house in Romoland, near Perris, at 1:10 p.m., more than seven hours after guards discovered they were missing from the Southwest Detention Center.

Nathaniel Decarlo Sapp, 18, charged with murder, remained at large late Tuesday, authorities said. Sapp was jailed and awaiting trial in the killing of a 62-year-old Riverside man in January.

“The tolerance for this is zero,” said Riverside County Asst. Sheriff Stanley Sniff. “It’s unreasonable to have an escape.”

The jailbreak apparently occurred around midnight, minutes after guards conducted a head count in a large dormitory-style room that housed 68 inmates. At the next head count, at 5:45 a.m., the four were gone, authorities said.

Sniff said the escapees broke open a small doorway into a jail wall filled with pipes and “quite skillfully, acting like gymnasts,” shinned up the pipes to the roof. The men then walked to an area not covered by barbed wire and tossed knotted bedsheets over the side of the building and climbed down to freedom. The jail is next to dirt fields and a small airport in an unincorporated area of Riverside County known as French Valley.

Hours after pictures of the escapees were released to the media, which led to dozens of tips from the public, three of the inmates were captured in a home in the 25000 block of Avenida Vizcaya, near Perris, about 20 miles north of the jail. Michael Thomas Potter, 24, and Ryan Esteban Concepcion, 22, both of Lake Elsinore, and Trung Minh Lu, 22, of Riverside, surrendered without a struggle.

The three apparently got a ride to Perris, Sniff said, and investigators are trying to determine whether they received outside help.

Potter, Concepcion and Lu were taken back to the Southwest Detention Center, a gray, two-story, cinder-block building that has housed inmates since 1992. The jail, which can house up to 1,011 inmates, was described as full on Tuesday.

The three are expected to be arraigned Thursday on charges of escaping from a correctional facility. Potter was in custody on alleged robbery and narcotics violations. Lu was jailed on two burglary counts. Concepcion, who was due in Riverside County Superior Court on Tuesday morning for a parole violation hearing, was in custody on charges of carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon.

Sapp had been jailed in the Jan. 10 killing of John Young, 62, who was found stabbed to death. He was arrested by Riverside police two days later while in Young’s car.

Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle was angered by the escape, which forced some schools in Temecula and Menifee to lock their gates and classroom doors and caused alarm in nearby residential areas.

Doyle “has expressed a deep concern for the community at large, knowing they are concerned about the integrity of our jails,” Sniff said. “We’re concerned by what systems failed here, including the human system. We’ll sort this out and let the chips fall where they may.”

Sniff said the investigation into the escape would assess “if the staff people were actually looking.” Those responsible could be fired, Sniff said.

Riverside police, a local task force assigned to violent offender cases and the California Highway Patrol joined the Sheriff’s Department in the search for Sapp.

“I’m pretty comfortable we’ll pick this guy up soon,” Sniff said.