Inmate Who Escaped From New Jersey Jail Captured in Mexico

[q
url="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/19/nyregion/19escape.html?ref=nyregion"]ELIZABETH,
N.J. — More than four weeks after making a remarkable escape from their
county jail cells in New Jersey, two inmates finally returned to the
building they had fled.
 
The two, Jose A. Espinosa, 20, and
Otis A. Blunt, 33, appeared in wrist and leg shackles in a tiny
courtroom in the Union County jail to face charges that they broke out
of their cinder block cells, one fleeing to Mexico City and the other
to a basement a little more than a mile from the jail.
 
Judge
Joan Robinson Gross raised bail to $4 million each in cash, up from
about $1 million combined, and told Mr. Espinosa that he faced
immigration charges as well. He had come to this country from Mexico
when he was 6, said his lawyer, Marc D’Arienzo.
 
The escapees
stepped into a scene of heightened security that seemed more than equal
to the task. They were escorted into court by five officers and spoke
to the judge behind thick bulletproof glass. Outside the building,
three officers from Union County patrolled with .45-caliber submachine
guns. Marianne Hopko, a sergeant with the county sheriff’s office,
apprised the scene and predicted, “They’re not going anywhere.”
 
That
was not entirely true. After the hearing, Mr. Blunt and Mr. Espinosa
were taken to New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, where they will stay
for the foreseeable future. They could face an additional 7 to 10 years
for their escape, according to officials here. A court date was set for
March.[/q]

[q
url="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080110_2d_inmate_who_fled_N_J__jail_captured_in_Mexico_City.html"]The
investigation has found no evidence that guards knowingly assisted the
prisoners, Romankow said.

"At most we're looking at negligence by corrections officers," Romankow said.

The escape was discovered by Corrections Officer Rudolph Zurick, who
found a sarcastic note left by the prisoners thanking him for his
"help." Although authorities repeatedly said they had no evidence that
Zurick gave any aid, the guard committed suicide at his South Amboy
home Jan. 2, the day he was to speak to investigators.

When asked by reporters after his capture if he felt bad about Zurick's suicide, Espinosa responded: "It wasn't my fault."

Authorities have said the pair used photos of bikini-clad women to
hide holes they dug through cinderblock walls in a jailbreak that
echoed the plot of The Shawshank Redemption. In the movie, the main
character uses posters of women to conceal his escape tunnel and
eventually flees to Mexico.

Guards first raised an alarm for Espinosa, 20, and Blunt, 32, about
5 p.m. on Dec. 15. The men had piled sheets under their blankets to
make it appear they were sleeping.

However, authorities now believe the men had escaped about 9 p.m. on
Dec. 14 by squeezing through the openings onto a third-floor rooftop,
and then leaping over a 25-foot-high fence topped with razor wire.[/q]