Two more inmates recaptured
YAKIMA – Two more inmates were in custody here at midday Saturday, leaving just two escapees still at large after a jailbreak that briefly freed nine inmates from the Yakima County Jail.
Intensive media coverage brought in a flood of tips following the jailbreak Friday night, said county corrections spokesman Cpl. Ken Rink. Five of the inmates were recaptured almost immediately and authorities went after the other four.
Rink said Santos Luera, 20, charged with second-degree murder, and Terry Moser, 25, charged with assault, were recaptured Saturday morning and returned to the jail at 2:38 p.m. They were “being housed in an area that is very secure and they’re being monitored.”
Yakima Police Chief Sam Granato said an anonymous tip Saturday morning led officers to a Yakima house where Luera’s sister lived. She gave the police permission to search her residence and the two suspects were found in the attic.
Granato said they were taken into custody at about 11 a.m. without any physical resistance.
“They were verbally combative. They weren’t happy they had been captured,” Granato said.
Before returning the two men to jail, Luera was taken to a hospital for treatment of a broken leg he injured during the escape, Granato said.
Luera faces trial Dec. 5 on a charge of fatally shooting his half-brother during an argument.
The police chief said one of the two inmates who remained at large on Saturday had been spotted about 7:30 p.m. Friday, a few hours after they escaped. But he escaped on foot before officers reached the house in Yakima County where he had been hiding.
“We have no information on how they’re getting around or if they’re even still together,” Granato said, adding that police know their best chance of catching the remaining two escapees would be for citizens to notice suspicious behavior and report it.
Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin said the investigation is ongoing throughout the state, following up on leads and reading through reports, but he added, they have “no excellent leads at this time.”
The inmates, all wearing blue jail coveralls, apparently escaped shortly after 5 p.m. Friday through the ceiling of a cell in their unit, on the top floor of the four-story main jail, and gained access to the roof, Rink said.
From that roof, they used bedsheets to slide down to the roof of the adjacent one-story jail annex, then jumped to the ground.
One inmate was recaptured on the main jail roof, three were caught on the annex roof and a corrections officer spotted the fifth standing on the ground and tackled him, Rink said.
The inmates still missing were identified as Luis Soto, 28, of Toppenish, and Gianno Alaimo, 26, of Yakima. Soto was facing trial Jan. 3 on a second-degree theft charge, while Alaimo had been charged with assault.