Murder defendant captured hours after escaping
Two cell mates fashioned bedsheets into a rope more than 100 feet long and made a daring escape Friday morning from the 12th floor of the Oklahoma County jail, officials said Monday.
One, a rape defendant, fell and broke his ankle. He was s potted by Oklahoma City police officers Friday morning laying in the grass after making his way just outside the jail's secure perimeter, an investigator reported.
The other, a murder defendant, was captured hours later on foot in southwest Oklahoma City. Investigators believe he was going to see his dad and maybe flee the country, The Oklahoman was told.
The escape quickly brought renewed criticism of the jail trust, which took over operations of the facility from the
sheriff only a month ago. The jail administrator, Greg Williams, said, “Moving forward, we will use this incident as another way to improve the physical security of the facility, as well as the quality of life for those who work and live within the detention center.”
The 13- story jail opened in 1991 west of downtown Oklahoma City and was billed as escape proof. It was not. Two months after opening, two inmates in the same week broke the block windows in their cells and used bedsheets to scale down the side of the jail undetected. Others followed.
Sheriffs responded over the years with new safety measures, such as more frequent bed checks and metal grates over the window blocks. The escape Friday was the first in years involving tied bed sheets and the first under the trust.
The injured in mate, Jose Balentin Hernandez, 33, was taken to OU Medical Center for treatment, a trust spokesman said.
He is accused of raping a woman after breaking into her Oklahoma City home last year. He also is accused of exposing himself to another woman outside a doctor's office last year. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to sexual battery.
The murder defendant, Pablo Daniel Robledo, 34, is accused of involvement in a fatal gang shooting in Oklahoma City in 2019.
Police reported he got permission from a leader of the South Side Locos gang to “handle” another member who had been “messing up.” He also is accused in an assault charge of beating another inmate in December and in a contraband charge of having a cellphone in jail.
The trust acknowledged in a news release that jailers learned of the escape after being contacted by police shortly before 7 a.m. Friday. Jailers then verified and accounted for all other inmates, said Mac Mullings, the trust's programs and services coordinator.
A U. S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, aided by Oklahoma City police officers and Oklahoma County sheriff deputies, launched a massive manhunt f or Robledo a nd arrested him about 2:25 p.m six miles from the jail.
“We devoted every ounce of manpower we had to get this fugitive back in custody because we really believed he'd be a great threat to our community ,” U.S. Marsh al Johnny Kuhlman said. “He was walking down the street in a front yard and confronted and arrested by members of the task force.”
Robledo was wearing jeans, a shirt and cowboy boots at the time of his capture. Sheriff deputies walked him back into the jail. “I'm proud of the work accomplished today,” Sheriff P.D. Taylor said of the arrest.
In an arrest affidavit, an investigator for the trust said the inmates were able to escape about 5:20 a.m. by cutting the welds of a metal grate and then breaking through the glass blocks in their cell. They anchored the rope to the leg of a metal desk in their cell.
After climbing from his cell, Robledo scaled a wall to get out of a secure area at the rear of the jail. “A diagram of the facility was found drawn on a piece of paper with the specific areas that the inmates escaped from drawn in detail,” the investigator wrote.
The escape also brought a renewal of the a nimo si ty between County Commissioner Kevin Calvey and the sheriff.
Calvey again blamed t he sheriff for problems at the jail.
“Sheriff Taylor had the responsibility to maintain the jail, including the windows through which the inmates escaped, and Taylor failed,” the commissioner said. “The legacy of Taylor's mismanagement is more fully being exposed now, and the trust management is fixing the problems as they come to light.”
In response, the sheriff said, “These escapees had to cut through ... grates, and no one at the jail noticed, so how is that my fault? They hoarded bedsheets for their escape, and were free for more than an hour and Jail Trust administration didn't even know until outside law enforcement notified them, that's not my fault. Enough is enough.