Inmate recaptured after his accidental release last month
LOS ANGELES — A murder suspect who was mistakenly released from a Los Angeles jail last month was recaptured Monday in Nevada, authorities said.
Los Angeles County sheriff ’ s detectives learned earlier in the day that Steven Lawrence Wright might be hiding in a Boulder City hotel and asked for help from the FBI and local police departments. Wright was arrested without incident.
The 37- year- old was unarmed and there was no indication that he committed any crimes while he was out, said sheriff ’s Cmdr. Keith Swensson.
Swensson said a man and a woman also were arrested at the hotel on charges of aiding and abetting, but Swensson did not have details about how they know Wright.
He declined to say what led detectives to the hotel where Wright was found, though he did say a $20,000 reward generated a lot of tips.
Authorities do not plan to file any additional charges against Wright, who will be held in Nevada pending an extradition hearing.
“It’s not like it’s really an escape. It’s our mistake,” said Sgt. Tim Duerr, a longtime investigator in the Major Crimes Bureau, which was tasked with finding Wright.
Besides, he said , Wright already faces life in prison if convicted of the charges that put him behind bars.
“Really, what’s he going to get” with a new charge, Duerr said. “He’s facing other charges more detrimental to him than anything we can do to him now.”
Duerr declined to detail what Wright had been up to the nine days he was a free man again.
Investigators had been scrambling to recapture Wright since his release from the Inmate Reception Center in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 and had been notifying potential targets he might seek, interviewing those who know him best, and chasing down tips from the public.
Deputies didn’t realize the mistake until more than 24 hours after the release, when they launched their manhunt.
Wright had been behind bars since April 2011 following his arrest in the shooting death of a 47- year- old man that year in Pasadena. At the time, police said Wright belonged to the Altadena Blocc Crips, and the victim belonged to a rival gang.