ConsumerWatch

REDWOOD CITY (BCN) ― A 17-year-old inmate who escaped Thursday may not have left the area in a car, a San Mateo County Sheriff's office spokesman said Tuesday at a mid-afternoon news conference.

Surveillance cameras at the detention facility at 222 Paul Scannell Drive show a mid-size black sedan, possibly a Chevrolet Impala, with chrome wheels pulled up to the chain link fence around 7 p.m., which is when Josue Raul Orozco escaped, Lt. Marc Alcantara said. Authorities were "not positive that the car was part of the escape," but couldn't discount that it might have been involved, he added.

Investigators also received reports from residents near the Youth Services Center who reported seeing someone of Orozco's description running through the neighborhood Thursday evening, Alcantara said. Authorities were investigating all of these leads.

Orozco, a native of Mexico, was believed to be headed toward the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Local, state and federal authorities were notified of the escape, and were coordinating their efforts with the San Mateo County Sheriff's office.

Alcantara said he believes Orozco left the immediate area, but could not comment on his whereabouts.

The two teenage inmates who were suspected of assisting Orozco in his escape were arraigned Tuesday in Redwood City Municipal Court. Martin Villa Patino and Vanher Cho, both 18, pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding an escape, as well as gang enhancements. Deputy District Attorney Joseph Cannon said Patino and Orozco are both members of the Sureno gang, but could not comment on any gang affiliations that Cho had.

Patino and Cho were each being held in custody on $200,000 bail for aiding Orozco in his escape. Patino is currently serving a sentence for a previous conviction, and a case for Cho's previous offense is pending, Cannon said.

Both defendants have been transferred to the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City.

The three teens were playing basketball in an exterior recreation yard when Patino and Cho allegedly pushed Orozco up the surrounding concrete wall. The wall is 15-feet high, but the halogen lights that illuminate the yard were at 12-feet, Chief Probation Officer Loren Buddress said. Orozco was reportedly able to reach one of the lamps and pull himself back over the wall. The lights in that recreation yard, and in the other yards, have been adjusted so that they are level with the wall.

After scaling the wall Orozco dropped down the other side and was able to escape through a 3-foot hole that was cut in the exterior chain link fence. The hole in the chain link fence is believed to have been cut by an accomplice.

Buddress said that as part of the probation department's ongoing investigation into Orozco's escape the county Office of Emergency Services was putting together protocol on how to notify residents "if there is such an event in the future." Residents would receive phone calls, or text messages to their cell phones, as part of the notification system.

The probation department hoped to finish its internal investigation sometime this week, Buddress said.

"We are working with the sheriff's office for any ways that we can enhance the security of the entire facility," Buddress said.

Orozco is the youngest person to be charged as an adult for murder in San Mateo County, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

Orozco and co-defendant Faustino Ayala, 23, are charged with murder and participating in a criminal street gang in connection with the death of 21-year-old Francisco Rodriguez in Redwood City on July 12, 2005.

Orozco was 14 at the time of the shooting, and is believed to have pulled the trigger, Wagstaffe said.

Orozco was in custody on no bail status and if convicted was facing up to life in prison, Wagstaffe said. A jury trial for the case was continued for the fifth time in January until May 12.

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