Authorities capture state prisoner on the loose in Southern California
Law enforcement officials in Southern California have apprehended a 26-year-old inmate who walked away from a minimum-security facility in Los Angeles on Monday.
Rafael Rodriguez came to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Male Community Reentry Program from Orange County on March 13, 2019, a CDCR news release stated.
The 26-year-old was sentenced to 12 years for kidnapping, inflicting great bodily injury and assault with a firearm, along with an enhancement for the use of the firearm. He had been at the MCRP facility in L.A. since mid-January this year.
Just before 8 a.m. on April 8, Rodriguez was reported missing after authorities received an alert that an ankle monitor had been removed.
“Staff immediately initiated an emergency count and confirmed Rodriguez was missing,” authorities said. “A search was quickly initiated and CDCR’s Office of Correctional Safety and local law enforcement agencies are assisting.”
Rodriguez was described as 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing approximately 170 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He had last been seen wearing khaki pants and a black hooded sweatshirt.
A little more than 24 hours after he removed his ankle monitor and walked away from the facility, officials say he was captured in L.A. and taken to the California Institute for Men.
“His case will be referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for possible escape charges,” authorities said in an updated release.
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The Male Community Reentry Program allows those sentenced to state prison to serve the end of their sentences at the reentry center where tools and services necessary to transition from custody to the community are provided. The program is voluntary and only available to men who two years or less remaining on their sentence.
“Since 1977, 99 percent of all people who have left an adult institution, camp or community-based program without permission have been apprehended,” officials said.
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