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Violent Inmates Escape In New Mexico — Criminals’ Absence Goes Unnoticed For Hours

By Shelley Hazen
Published on: 03:26 PST, Mar 11, 2016

While on their way to a new prison, two violent inmates, shackled with leg irons, belly chains, and handcuffs, escaped into the countryside of New Mexico on Thursday night.

Corrections officers last accounted for the men at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, NBC News reported. They only discovered the inmates had escaped by at 1 a.m. Thursday. And it was several hours after this shocking discovery before state officials alerted the public that two “armed and dangerous” inmates had escaped.

By 4:30 p.m., they had traveled more than 200 miles to Albuquerque, the Associated Press added. As of early Friday, the escaped inmates were still in the wind. Police believe they’re in Albuquerque or northern New Mexico.

“In almost every case that you have a set of circumstances like this, it is not a matter of a lack of policies, a lack of systems, a lack of structure,” said New Mexico Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said.

The inmates, now loose somewhere in New Mexico, are Joseph Cruz, 32, and Lionel Clah, 29, both sporting criminal records filled with violence. Cruz was in prison for first-degree murder, attempted murder in the first degree, and child abuse. Clah was serving time for armed robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and assault with intent to commit a violent felony upon a peace officer.

The inmates escaped while being transported with three other inmates from the Penitentiary of New Mexico in a van heading toward the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility. A preliminary investigation revealed that they escaped somewhere between the last time COs accounted for the inmates on Wednesday and a prison-stop in Roswell.

It’s believed that the COs in charge of the inmates during the transport didn’t do a head count during two stops in the trip. Marcantel said that the structure in place simply broke down.

“Somehow we failed. We just don’t have the detail at this point.”

By 4:30 a.m., both inmates were seen on surveillance video from a hotel lobby in Albuquerque. Police set up a perimeter in the city’s northeastern corner, and at one point, came close to capturing the inmates.

Officers responding to a tip followed a car for a while before two men and a woman escaped on foot; they believe the two men were the inmates. They vanished, but the woman was taken into custody and is now being questioned.

Early Friday, the escaped inmates still hadn’t been caught, and the authorities were telling people in Albuquerque and northern New Mexico to look their doors. Right now, they don’t know how long the hunt for them will take.

Marcantel has continued to defend corrections policies and is looking into whether the inmates escape was planned or spontaneous.

“This must be investigated as something more organized. We can’t just assume an opportunity (presented itself).”

Several months ago, New Mexico’s Corrections Department warned that its staff levels were low statewide and low wages had led to high turnover.

Both Cruz and Clah have distinctive tattoos. NBC News describes them as follows.

“Cruz has a tattoo reading ‘Alias’ on the back of his neck, a tribal symbol on his right ear and the phrase ’13 smiley’ on his right elbow. Clah has a feather tattoo on his left cheekbone and multiple tattoos on his arms.”

When they fled the transport van, both men were shackled with leg irons, belly chains, and handcuffs, and they wore paper transport suits. In the surveillance footage, they were seen in different attire.

“Clah wore a red or maroon shirt with a white design, blue jeans and dark shoes. He was also wearing a brown hoodie… Cruz wore eye glasses, a tan or light brown long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes.”

[Image via seanbear/Shutterstock]

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