Mar 13, 2008 10:22 am US/Pacific
Central Valley Manhunt For Escaped Murder Suspect
REDWOOD CITY (BCN) ―
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Josue Raul Orozco.
San Mateo Youth Services
A 17-year-old suspected murderer who escaped from San Mateo County Youth Services on Feb. 14 might be hiding in California's Central Valley, a San Mateo County sheriff's lieutenant said Thursday.
Authorities were searching for Josue Raul Orozco along Interstate Highway 99 in the area between Fresno and Bakersfield because he is known to have associates there, Lt. Marc Alcantara said. The sheriff's office is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
"We have been following leads since the time of his escape and they led us to believe that he may be staying in the Central Valley area until such time he feels that he can successfully make it across the boarder to Mexico, either via the California or Arizona border," Alcantara said.
Authorities have not stopped following leads, Alcantara said, and the U.S. Border Patrol is on alert that Orozco may be attempting to cross into Mexico.
Orozco, a member of the Sureno gang, is the youngest person to be charged as an adult for murder in San Mateo County.
Orozco was playing basketball with two other inmates around 7:15 p.m. when he scaled a high wall surrounding the athletic area, Chief Probation Officer Loren Buddress said. Once he made it over the wall he escaped through a hole that had been cut in the chain link fence that surrounds the detention facility at 222 Paul Scannell Drive.
"It appears that an accomplice cut a hole in the fence and was waiting for him outside the facility in a car," Buddress said.
Surveillance cameras at the detention facility show a mid-size black sedan, possibly a Chevrolet Impala, with chrome wheels pulled up to the chain link fence around the time of the escape, Alcantara said. A K-9 unit tracked Orozco's scent from the hole in the fence to the adjacent roadway, where the scent disappeared.
An internal report from Youth Services released Monday stated that a supervisor left Orozco and the two other teens in the basketball court unattended, according to the probation department.
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.
At the defendants' 2006 preliminary hearing, a witness testified he saw a man, who prosecutors believe was Orozco, get out of a vehicle the afternoon of the shooting and reach for something in his waistband.
Prosecutors allege that Orozco shot Rodriguez and that Ayala was driving the car. Orozco was 14 at the time of the shooting.
Three other juveniles who were arrested in connection with Rodriguez's killing were already convicted and sentenced for aiding and abetting a murder, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Orozco is "a man we wanted to get to trial and convicted," Wagstaffe said. "Hopefully he will be apprehended and we will give him his day in court."
Orozco was in custody on no bail status and if convicted was looking at up to life in prison, Wagstaffe said. A jury trial for the case was continued for the fifth time in January until May 12.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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