Man pleads guilty to assisting jail escape

SANTA ANA — A California man pleaded guilty on Thursday to helping three inmates escape from jail by leaving a backpack with a rope and knife outside the facility attached to a rope, authorities said.

Loc Ba Nguyen, 51, was sentenced to a year in county jail under an agreement with the court.

Orange County prosecutor Cynthia Nichols said she argued that Nguyen should be sent to state prison since he twice left items by the jail to assist in the escape and served as the inmates’ getaway driver once they made their brazen break from the jail in Santa Ana in January 2016.

Defense attorney Edward Welbourn said Nguyen has never run into trouble with the law and got involved in a situation he shouldn’t have. He said Nguyen went to specific locations outside the jail and a rope would drop down from the roof for him to attach bags containing items for the inmates.

“He recognizes that what he did was wrong,” Welbourn said, adding that Nguyen has a real estate and construction business and previously employed one of the escapees.

Authorities said Nguyen left a backpack with a rope, knife and clothing by the jail attached to a rope about 10 days before inmates Hossein Nayeri, Bac Duong and Jonathan Tieu broke out in January 2016 by climbing behind walls to the roof and rappelling down using bed linens.