Murder suspect mistakenly released from jail — then recaptured, police say

A man accused in a 2018 slaying spent almost 20 days out of jail after being mistakenly released earlier in March, California police say.

Steven Manzo, 24, of Hawaiian Gardens, was rearrested Monday following his March 9 release from a Los Angeles jail, KABC reported. He faces murder charges in the Long Beach death of Salvador Corrales, a 24-year-old father of two young girls, KCBS reported.

Charges against Manzo had been dismissed and immediately refiled under a new case number after he was not taken from jail to a March 8 court hearing, forcing it to be postponed, KABC reported.

The district attorney's office said it had asked that Manzo be held until the next hearing, but the office had to contact sheriff's officials after learning he had been released March 9, KTLA reported.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials, responsible for processing inmates, insisted in a Twitter post that Manzo's release "was unequivocally not due to any 'mistake' or 'error'" on their part as the charges against him had been dismissed.

Likewise, Long Beach police, who originally arrested Manzo, told KTLA they could "confirm the error was not on our end."

Los Angeles sheriff's investigators recaptured Manzo after investigators tracked him down and saw him get into a gray Nissan Sentra in Buena Park and followed him to Cypress, where he was arrested without incident in a traffic stop.

He was booked back into jail on $4,090,000 bail, according to the publication. He faces charges including murder, attempted murder, shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, possession for sale of methamphetamine and sale or transportation of methamphetamine.