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We caught wind of this a few hours ago but couldn’t confirm it until now — Jorge Murillo, the state hospital “patient” who escaped custody last week by hopping two fences without anyone seeming to notice, has been captured.
Murillo, a 40-year-old Honduran national, who recently finished a 10-year prison sentence for sexual assault, was busted near the Mexican border in Imperial County, California.
After completing his sentence, Murillo was in custody of the Arizona Community Treatment and Protection Center at the state hospital on Van Buren and 24th Street in Phoenix. Despite completing his criminal sentence, Murillo was awaiting a civil ruling that would have potentially kept him off the street for another 10 years.
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On October 17, Murillo was in a recreation yard at the state hospital, when he jumped two separate 16-foot razor-wire fences and disappeared into downtown Phoenix, without anyone but a few fellow inmates noticing.
The inmates who watched Murillo’s escape told officers, who started a manhunt, but it was too late — Murillo was gone.
According to a press release from the Arizona Department of Health Services, on October 23, U.S. Border Patrol agents caught Murillo in California, near the border.
Spokeswoman Laura Oxley says ADHS only found out about Murillo’s capture yesterday afternoon.
Murillo is in the custody of the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office and is expected to be transferred to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where he is to serve a 16-year sentence for rape and “other crimes” committed in Los Angeles County.
