Police Capture Jail Inmate Who Fled Work Detail in Detective’s Car
SANTA ANA — A 19-year-old jail inmate escaped from a work crew Wednesday in a deputy’s unmarked car and was captured a short time later, authorities said.
Jose Antonio Garcia of Santa Ana was arrested about 12:15 p.m. as he entered his wife’s home in the 500 block of Beverly Place in Santa Ana, Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson said.
Garcia, an inmate at James A. Musick Honor Farm next to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, had been assigned to a work crew in the basement of the Sheriff’s Department main office in Santa Ana, Olson said. At about 10:30 a.m. Garcia apparently slipped away from the work detail and into a detective’s car which had keys in the ignition and was parked in the basement parking lot.
Sheriff’s authorities broadcast a bulletin of the escape over police radios, Olson said.
Santa Ana police officers arrested Garcia, who was re-booked into County Jail on suspicion of felony escape, Olson said.
The detective’s car was recovered in the 500 block of East Chestnut Street in Santa Ana, about half a mile from where Garcia was arrested, Olson said.
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