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Santos Carrera-Morales, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder committed in 2007 in Sedgwick County, Kansas, a prisoner that escaped from a central Kansas jail before dawn on Wednesday. Authorities recaptured him on Friday.
Updated 7:50 p.m. ET: A double-murderer who escaped Wednesday from a Kansas jail along with three other inmates was captured late Thursday, officials said Friday.
Santos Carrera-Morales was taken into custody at 11:58 p.m CT Thursday night, according to spokesman Ben Gardner of the Kansas Highway Patrol. Carrera-Morales was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for a 2007 double-slaying.
The Wichita Eagle reported that Carrera-Morales was captured in the town of Russell, about 80 miles from the Ottawa County Jail in the town of Minneapolis in central Kansas. Details of the capture were not immediately released.
Two other fugitives were taken into custody earlier, and one, Eric James, was apprehended Friday evening in Omaha, Neb. The details of his capture were not immediately known.
The inmates, armed with homemade knives, overpowered guards at the Kansas jail after complaining about a broken water line in the holding cell area, Ottawa County Sheriff Keith Coleman told The Salina Journal. Coleman said the inmates were able to open the cell doors and make their way outside. The guards suffered only minor injuries.
The inmates had been held at the Ottawa County Jail because of state prison overcrowding when they escaped. After the incident, the 18 inmates still held at Ottowa were returned to a state facility in Ellsworth.
Carrera-Morales was convicted of two counts of first-degree in 2008.
The Kansas Corrections Department is reviewing its policy on inmate transfers to Ottawa County — one of four county jails that accommodates prisoners from overcrowded state facilities, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing corrections department spokesman Jeremy Barclay.
"We are reassessing our jail placement in Ottawa County right now, just during this period," he told AP. "This is an interim step while the investigation is taking place."
Coleman said the four inmates had been in the same area of the jail for less than a week before the escape, the report said.
"They didn't have a lot of time to plan," he said. "We have different rooms in the facility, and they weren't all together for a very long time."
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/04/20/2304257/jail-escapee-convicted-murderer.html#storylink=cpy
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Why was a double murderer not so deep within the interior of this prison that escape was entirely impossible? How many layers does it take?
Correction. Not "this" prison, "a" prison.
Unfortunately, due to "overcrowding" 22 inmates had been moved from the state facility to be housed in the county jail. One does have to wonder how someone convicted of that sort of crime was selected as one of those who would be a good risk for a lower security/tier facility, though.
I don't understand why they are allowed any type of material that is hard enough to create a handmade knife. These people are killers, murderers. Don't effing give them a damn thing. Not even a freaking tooth brush. They are scum, let them rot.
You would be amazed at what can be formed into a weapon when one has nothing but time, Blake -- toilet paper has been used to make a weapon that was hard and pointed enough to penetrate a human body (by an ingenious inmate, matter of fact, on more than one occasion).
Then don't give them toilet paper.
Blake,
I hope you get wrongly (or rightly) accused of something and have to spend a weekend in jail. When you cry for toilet paper and the guards laugh, just remember that you're scum.
He would not of been able to escape if we would have given him the needle back in 2007.
This was a jail. The prison was overcrowded.
death sentence would cure this problem...
Agree, but he since he was just convicted in 2007 the needle wouldn't finish him likely until 2027.
The current prison system isn't doing it's job. Why are murders, rapists and child molesters not in continual lockup? Why are the gangsters allowed to frequent the open areas where they can plot and plan even more crimes while in prison? Prison has ceased to be a deterent and it seems many criminals have more friends on the inside than the outside..... they shouldn't be allowed to communicate with each other at all. Why not do what the French used to do...... create a island sancuary and use it for the really violent repeat offenders. Somewhere they can't escape from. Put a patrol boad on guard off shore and dump some food down once a week and let them survive as they may. If they behave in society then they have no business living in it.
They do not have room for real criminals because of menial drug sentencing and 3 strike laws that include the smallest of crimes...
I am not saying drug dealers and such should not go to jail.. However the fact that murderers and molesters are getting moved because someone got 5 years for say a couple jibs... that are tolerated most every where.. I do not what the solution is but there has got to be some place we can put nonviolent offenders.. or punish them differently.
I guess I would rather run into a pot head rather than a murderer they don't have room for..
Thank what ever God you pray to that they caught these guys, and that they catch the last one before he kills again. Because it is just a matter of time and the public remains in danger until he is caught.
Over crowding or not, these guys should have been shipped to a max prison even if it was out of state.
If that last one kills someone, it is on the Kansas Prison Official who made this poor judgment call.
If it has something to do will the law that was followed as in procedure then the law needs to be changed, now. A local jail cell was no place for these guys.
Agree totally with the people who are wondering why a convicted murderer is the one chosen for a county jail. Hard to believe the jailers were not killed, fortunate indeed. Open Alcatraz (don't forget to remove the minty Thompson from display case, I will happily safeguard it for the penal system) let them live like the animals they are. Sorry to insult animals, but for me they are not human.
Funding cuts to our criminal justice system are certainly on the lists of things that need to be reviewed. In the county where I live a criminal justice levy is on the ballot. Historically new taxes face an almost certain death. I am acquainted with our sheriff and have occasion to interact with several of the deputies. The levy will not only provide needed funding for sheriffs activities but other areas of criminal justice. Without this influx of $$$$ fewer crimes would be investigated and tried. Another result of the loss of funding is that our county jail would have to reduce staff and as such a number of inmates would be released back into the general public. All of this leads back to why were these dangerous criminals housed in a county jail rather than a prison? It was a unfortunate compromise that had to be made to accommodate budget shortfalls. In a time when the discussion of new and higher taxes is unpopular, one must always ask the question: How much is my personal safety and the safety of my family worth??
Yeah, but you STILL have the question of why, with so many prisoners in the "overcrowded" system, did they allow these guys to be the ones moved? Multiple Murderers? Couldn't they have put someone else in county jail? Seems the most likely candidates would be those due for release soon. Just roll them through the jail as their sentence runs out.
Good questions. Lets hope there is some type of investigation at the prison board and those in charge of prisoner assignment are asked to answer those some questions.
This escape speaks to the stupidity of the jailers. These convicts used one of the oldest ruses for jail escape, the old "we've got a water leak in the cell" routine. Another favorite is "the toilet is stuffed and overflowing". In modern jails and prisons, if the cell door is opened it is for an inmate trustee plumber. These jailers surely must have known who was in the cell and how the lifer had nothing to lose in a jail break.
This is one of those things that never should have happened! A convicted murderer should never have been allowed outside of the prison! There had to have been other lesser offenders available for this transfer? Someone dropped the ball on this one!
I am glad he was recaptured before anyone else got hurt!
Right now California's prisons are at 200% capacity because people are being punished for petty drug offenses taking up valuable space from the criminals that will slit your throat.
Everytime cuts need to be made to the budget guess where that money comes from... not education.
as cruel as it sounds, we need to put these murderers on a fast track to oblivion. They need
to be executed asap and free up some prison space.
its a kid with a double murder conviction, the jails here in the u s are bursting over, for decades now this has been a epidemic. let us a nation and we can make a pact to save youth from self destruction and it starts in the schools from day one. lets get a grip rebuild the family and set our priorities straight.
and for executing people in record numbers this is the united states not nazi germany
huh?
ZImmerman is not guilty!! Poor man was put into hiding because people found him guilty and didnt even have all the facts. This is not a guily man. Its an unfortunate event that happened.
Heck, if he could have made it over to Missouri, he would have gotten pardoned by Haley Barbour!
Always the chance of escape or parole for convicted murderers. That is what they live for. This murderer was also slated to be released into residential prison housing. Isn't that nice? Convicted killers should be executed quickly, not given another chance to kill again. This is the right of all victims, and their loved ones.
One of the 4 of these guys that escaped that day turned himself into the local walmart here in my hometown North Platte,Nebraska. The police had reasons to believe that the other two were as well here,because there were reports of them being at Menards(shopping) and Village Inn (wow). They were unconfirmed reports but still our whole town was in shock because nothing like this ever happens here. Wedensday night was a loooong night! We live on a farm out in the country,my husband has many rifles and you better believe every single one of them was loaded. Which I don't normally allow because of our small children,but that nite was an exception. Then on Thursday had heard they had been spotted in another Nebraska town a few hours away,out of our area at least. Woke up this morning to the news that Carrera had been back into custody,what a relief it was to hear that. Now if they can just find the other guy and everyone can be at ease. These guys were young but thats scarier because the young are dumb.
Doncha kinda think that everyone who designs,approves of,and mans prisons must be lame? Like #1 said.How many layers of security does it take?How many architects do you need to design a jail that keeps people in?Get some friggin gamers.I'm sure they could come up w some obstacles that'd be real scary/insurmountable
How many non-violent drug offenders are there in Kansas prisons ? peace
To Mark1751582...thanks, I think we did better than most people on here It was nice arguing with you. later