Murder Suspect Uses Ruse To Escape Jail

Walks Out Of Texas Jail After Assuming Cellmate's Identity

(AP)  A slaying suspect escaped from jail by assuming the identity of another inmate and was on the loose for more than six hours before authorities realized he was gone, officials said. He was still at large Monday.

The man who escaped, David Sauceda, 27, walked out of jail early Sunday morning when he recited the personal information of his cellmate, Michael Garcia, according to the sheriff's department.

An unidentified person had posted bond for Garcia, who is in jail on a felony auto theft charge. When officers went to retrieve him, Sauceda stepped forward and gave Garcia's serial number to a jail employee, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said.

But Sauceda's fingerprints, taken by a jail employee to verify his identity, were smudged and couldn't be matched to those on file for Garcia, said Brian Menges, director of jail administration.

So Sauceda was taken for an additional fingerprint check using the jail's Live Scan technology. Menges said Saucedo's Live Scan fingerprints were never compared to those on record for Garcia.

"It's a whole series of errors just like any other unfortunate disaster," Menges said.

Wolff said he understood the problem to be that the Live Scan check of Sauceda's fingerprints pulled up Sauceda's own profile, including a photo, and that when Sauceda matched it, he was released.

"Somehow in there the communication between the two did not go well," Wolff said. "It sounds like it's human error. We don't know for sure."

Wolff said it appears Garcia let Sauceda use his information, but that a full investigation will be done. "He's being questioned," Wolff said.

Menges said two employees have been reassigned from booking duties.

A message left for Sauceda's attorney of record was not returned Monday.

Bexar County Sheriff Rolando Tafolla told the San Antonio Express-News that Sauceda and Garcia are members of the Mexican Mafia, a violent prison gang based in Texas.

Sauceda and his brother, Jesse Sauceda, were charged in the November 2006 killing of a San Antonio man, and with robbing a 59-year-old woman after binding her with duct tape.

Meanwhile in Kansas, authorities said a former corrections officer, Amber Goff, 23, played a role in helping two inmates, Steven A. Ford and Jesse L. Bell, escape from a recreation yard Sunday night.

Goff worked at the El Dorado Correctional Center, about 30 miles east of Wichita, from September 2006 until this month. A vehicle traced to Goff that was found 15 miles away contained items linked to the escape, prison officials said.

Goff left behind personal belongings for family members, including a book she had written to her children that police confiscated, according to family members.

"All signs point to my sister never coming home," her older brother, Jonathan Crutcher, said Monday and pleaded for her to come back.

Crutcher said his family does not know what happened to his sister.

Authorities said the fugitives should be considered armed and dangerous.

Bell, 33, is serving sentences for forgery, burglary, battery and escape. Ford, 26, is serving a sentence for robbery and indecent liberties.

[keithle1]

This man is innocent? A boy scout? Unfairly jailed?
Missing his momma? Where do you get that?

[Krazcarl]

Again not the sharpest tool in the shed,,,what is idecent liberties is that messing with kids or peeing in public???

[andor3]

"Innocent men don''''t break out of jail."

Sheesh read the article before ya post--one just did.

[trenticus-2009]

LOL!!!! Way to go! Nice to see we have the best of the best looking out... LOOK OUT!!!!!

[firststate]

Thats coming for all of us, Big Brother is just getting started, It''''ll take a while to get caught up.

Posted by ToolMangler

It''ll take a while because this administration would select vendors who happen to have made the right political contributions. All those implantable GPS units would look a lot like rice. The first few million would probably cost a few thousand dollars each because of the "high product development and testing costs" and the vendor''s move to Dubai. After that move, it would be "discovered" that they looked like grains of rice because they were just grains of rice, very profitable grains of rice.

You''re right, it will take a while, there''ll be too much temptation to milk the scam.

[toolmangler-2009]

we should barcode these fu ckers and implant them with GPS...

Posted by libsluvsuvs at 04:22 PM : Oct 29, 2007


Thats coming for all of us, Big Brother is just getting started, It''ll take a while to get caught up.

[eyeruinme]

How embarrassing! I do hope they find him, though.

[keithle1]

Innocent men don''t break out of jail.

[andor3]

Keithle1 said: "Shoot him in the chest... Make sure there is no one around... . Say he was resisting arrest... KILL HIM NOW."

You advocate the premeditated murder of an innocent man. You are as guilty as he is, maybe more so since you make these criminal suggestions in a public forum.

If you do not accept that he is innocent until tried, what other anti-American beliefs do you hold and advocate? Why do you hate America and the Constitution and the rights it imparts to EVERYone?

[keithle1]

Shoot him in the chest as he is running through the woods. Make sure there is no one around. Not even a deer who could squeal. Say he was resisting arrest. Save the taxpayers a lot of money. What good does this punk do? Make some license plates? What useful purpose does he serve? Just causes problems for people. Heartache, pain & death. KILL HIM NOW.

[linfinster]

Wow, someone''s gonna get fired ... lol.
It would seem only fair that if a pedophile, murderer, rapist and the such ever wanted to taste a semblance of freedom again, they would have to give up that part of it. Otherwise lockem up forever! In fact, if they were wanted in connection with another crime and don''t show up to be investigated when requested, we could cause the implant (in the brain) to self destruct and leave him or her dead ... too much? yeah, there''s some flaws perhaps but we could test it on them since they are not really human anyway ..

[Krazcarl]

Hate it but like a good escape story a misbegotten youth.Hope you catch the scoundrel.

[libsluvsuvs]

we should barcode these fu ckers and implant them with GPS...