Jail escapee surrenders in King City Wednesday
Murder suspect had hidden on roof and jumped fence late Monday afternoon; investigation continues.
SALINAS >> The murder suspect who escaped from Monterey County Jail Monday afternoon turned himself in to authorities early Wednesday.
According to Chief Deputy John Thornburg of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Luis Armando Sarabia went to the King City Police Department at 2 a.m. Wednesday and surrendered himself to authorities. The Sheriff’s Office then took custody of Sarabia, 23, and returned him to jail.
Thornburg said Sarabia escaped around 3 p.m. Monday and officials discovered he was missing about three hours later. The inmate was in the yard on the roof of one of the jail’s buildings when he hid from guards and escaped. Other inmates distracted the guard as Sarabia hid and later escaped, Thornburg said. Inmates later lied about Sarabia’s whereabouts until jail officials realized he was missing.
In response to Sarabia escaping, just over a year after two other inmates broke out of county jail, Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo said Wednesday he submitted a proposal to the county to review the jail exterior perimeter safety measures, implement a public alert system and establish policies to provide timely information to the Board of Supervisors.
“The Board of Supervisors must be immediately notified and kept informed when these serious safety breaches occur,” Alejo said. “I hope to have a policy that will make sure this happens in the future.”
In addition to the proposal, Alejo said he will request the Monterey County civil grand jury investigate and report on the jail’s security.
“This latest inmate escape has really shown that we need a thorough review of our safety protocols and plans of our county jail,” he said. “We also need to implement an alert system to give notice to Salinas residents when there is an escapee on the loose. These are problems where there is technology readily available to address them.”
District 1, which Alejo represents, includes the jail and some of its surrounding neighborhoods.
After deputies discovered he was gone, they were able to discover Sarabia’s path out by watching footage from security cameras. Detectives with the Sheriff’s Office started looking for Sarabia shortly after they learned he had fled and served search warrants in Salinas and King City to try and track him down.
Sarabia was arrested in Greenfield in January 2019 in connection to the death of Charles Adolfo Jose and is awaiting trial.
Two murder suspects escaped from the jail in November 2019 and were arrested at the U.S./Mexico border days later. The Sheriff’s Office said at that time that Santos Fonseca and Jonathan Salazar exploited a “blind spot” in the hallway of the jail housing unit where they were awaiting trial on murder and other charges, then made a 22-inch by 8-inch hole through sheetrock and metal screening in a bathroom ceiling.
“The biggest difference was one was in the yard and one was a housing unit,” Thornburg said, adding that the Sheriff’s Office will investigate how Sarabia was able to escape.