Escaped inmate found in L.A. motel

The man walked off a prisoner firefighting crew last month in Orange County.

A prisoner who walked away from his inmate fire crew while fighting a blaze in Orange County last month was captured Halloween night in a Mission Hills motel, authorities said.

Armando Castillo, 31, was part of an inmate crew fighting the Canyon 2 fire in Orange County on Oct. 15 when, authorities say, he walked away from the firefighting effort near Peters Canyon Regional Park.

He was last seen around 4:45 p.m. that day before crews returned to their fire camp in San Bernardino County.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Special Service Unit and the Los Angeles Fugitive Apprehension Team tracked Castillo to a motel in Mission Hills, where he was arrested without incident around 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

A woman who was with Castillo at the motel, Daisy Castro, was detained on suspicion of assisting him in his escape but was released, said Krissi Khokhobashvili, a spokeswoman with the corrections department.

Castillo is serving a fiveyear sentence for possession of a firearm and evading a peace officer while driving recklessly. He was convicted in August 2016 and was set to be released on probation in May 2018.

Cases against Castro and Castillo will be forwarded to prosecutors, and Castillo no longer will be eligible to be housed in a fire camp.

Inmates who serve on fire crews earn $2 a day while in camp and $1 an hour while actually fighting fires. Inmates get two days off their sentence for each day they battle a blaze, Khokhobashvili said.