Investigations blame jail officers’ mistakes for escape
Investigations into a Sandoval County jailbreak determined that officers improperly placed an accused murderer in a minimum security unit and failed to notice “compromised” fencing through which two inmates managed to escape, according to reports released Monday.
Sandoval County posted redacted versions of internal and external investigations into the May 5 escape of Paul Garcia and Blake McPherson. Two jail officers assigned to the minimum restrictive housing unit are facing disciplinary action and all detention center officers will undergo refresher training, according to a Sandoval County spokesman.
Investigators determined the two officers in the unit failed to properly monitor inmates as they moved in and out of the recreation yard.
Garcia is charged in Bernalillo County with two counts of murder in a wreck that killed an Albuquerque mother and her teenage daughter. But he is facing additional unrelated charges in Sandoval County and was transported to the jail there on May 4 ahead of a court hearing.
According to the internal investigation, Garcia told McPherson — who was jailed on stolen vehicle charges — that with two life sentences hanging over him he had “nothing to lose” and wanted to escape. McPherson said Garcia threatened to stab him if he didn’t help.
The two kicked a spot in the fence until it broke loose enough for them to sneak through, investigators said. They climbed onto the roof, crossed to the northeast corner of the building, climbed down and ran to a nearby gas station, where they abandoned their orange jumpsuits.
They walked to the Bernalillo home of one of Garcia’s relatives where investigators said Garcia’s father picked them both up. He dropped McPherson off with a friend.
McPherson was captured the next morning, and Garcia was taken into custody May 7 in Valencia County.
Garcia had been transported to Sandoval County on May 4 from the Metropolitan Detention Center for a court hearing on less-serious charges than those he faced in Bernalillo County, investigators said. The outside investigation found that the officer who processed Garcia did not follow procedure and misunderstood online court records, which led him to believe incorrectly that the murder charges had been dismissed.
“This inattention to detail resulted in misclassification of the inmate and his assignment to a housing pod which did not provide enough security given his history,” external investigators reported.
Investigators wrote that staff believe the hole in the fence Garcia and McPherson sneaked through was created over time by inmates. They wrote that a thorough search of the recreation yard would have likely turned up the damaged section of the metal enclosure.
And internal investigators reported that detention center policy requires an officer to be present at the recreation area door before it is opened in order to keep track of the number of inmates who enter and exit. Neither of the two officers assigned to the unit did so.
Sandoval County spokesman Sidney Hill said portions of both reports were redacted in order to keep the facility secure. Publicizing the redacted information, he said, could compromise the security and safety of inmates and staff and might help other inmates formulate escape plans of their own.