A convicted bomb-maker has been recaptured after slipping out of a medium-security Nevada prison by using a cardboard cutout to fool guards and going on the run for several days before anyone noticed he was missing.
Las Vegas police announced late Wednesday they received information leading to the rearrest of Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, who had been sentenced to life behind bars in 2010 for killing a hot dog stand vendor in 2007 using a motion-activated bomb left in a coffee cup outside the popular Luxor hotel. The vendor was the boyfriend of Duarte-Herrera’s friend’s ex-girlfriend.
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Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered an investigation into Duarte-Herrera’s escape after his office learned he had been missing from the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Las Vegas since the start of the weekend.
“This kind of security lapse cannot be permitted and those responsible will be held accountable,” the governor said in a statement.
Paul Lunkwitz, president of Fraternal Order of Police Nevada C.O., which represents corrections officers in Nevada, said Duarte-Herrera used battery acid to break down the window frame of his cell. A prison lookout tower, which is supposed to act as an added security barrier, should have been able to spot Duarte-Herrera but has been unmanned for a couple of years.
“Not only could that tower see the unit, but the tower could see the fence line where the damage was that allowed the inmate to get through,” Lunkwitz told Fox 5 Vegas.
Duarte-Herrera’s absence was only realized during a head count on Tuesday. Sisolak called the incident “unacceptable.”
The state prison for men, located in Indian Springs, Nevada, houses 2,149 inmates.
Federal authorities offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to Duarte-Herrera’s capture.
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Calls to the Las Vegas authorities and the governor’s office for comment by the Washington Examiner were not returned.
