YAKIMA – Two more inmates were in custody here at midday Saturday, leaving two escapees at large after a jailbreak that 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 Ken Rink. Five of the inmates were recaptured almost immediately.
Rink said Santos Luera, 20, charged with second-degree murder, and Terry Moser, 25, charged with assault, were recaptured Saturday morning and were 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.”
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.
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 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 had 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 Saturday afternoon was spotted about 7:30 p.m. Friday a few hours escaping. But he fled on foot before officers reached the house where he had been hiding.
“We have no information on how they’re getting around or if they’re even still together,” Granato said.
Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin said the search has spread throughout the state.
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 there, 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 on the ground and tackled him, Rink said.
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