Fourth suspect arrested in connection San Benito County inmate escape, Sheriff’s Office says
SAN BENITO COUNTY, CALIF. (KION-TV)- UPDATE ON MAY 30, 2024 AT 8:28 PM- San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor announced a fourth suspect has been arrested for aiding the escape of inmate Daniel Lopez Zavala.
Taylor made the announcement on his Facebook page that 30-year-old Jose Perez-Gutierrez was booked into the San Benito County Jail on Thursday night.
It it is unclear what role Gutteriez had in helping Lopez Zavala escape from the San Benito County Jail.
Zavala's girlfriend Luz Mendoza and acquaintance Katrina Folsom were arrested for helping Lopez Zavala escape from jail. Mendoza was arrested with Zavala at a hotel in Campbell while Folsom was arrested early Thursday morning.
Additional suspect taken into custody after escaped San Benito County jail inmate was captured
UPDATE ON MAY 30, 2024 AT 10:48 AM- San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor told KION that a second woman was arrested on Thursday morning for allegedly aiding the escape of inmate Daniel Lopez Zavala.
Taylor said that Katrina Folsom was arrested after deputies pulled her car over on Thursday morning.
Taylor believes that Folsom was an acquaintance of Zavala and his girlfriend Luz Mendoza of Hollister.
Lopez Zavala and his girlfriend Mendoza were located and arrested at The Carlyle Hotel in Campbell on Thursday night per San Benito County Sheriff's Office.
During a press conference, Sheriff Taylor said that Mendoza and Folsom will be facing charges in relation to Zavala escaping.
Taylor said that multiple factors could have led to Zavala escaping from San Benito County Jail.
"It could be poor work performance, there could be issues with the physical plant that we need to look at as far as securing that all options are on the table," Taylor said. "And I'm not going to rule out any criminal liability on anybody's part that they be held accountable if they aided or abetted this gentleman or conspired with him to help him escape."
Investigators said that they are still searching for additional parties of interest that could have helped Zavala escape on Tuesday morning. Taylor did not reveal any additional suspect info since it is an ongoing investigation.
San Benito County District Attorney Joel Buckingham told KION that police reports are currently being sent to his office and charges against the three suspects are expected to be filed by Friday afternoon.
San Benito County Sheriff's Office located and arrested escaped inmate Daniel Lopez Zavala and girlfriend in San Jose
UPDATE ON MAY 29, 2024 AT 10:50 PM - San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor announced Daniel Lopez Zavala was located along with his girlfriend, 31-year-old Luz Mendoza from Hollister.
According to the Sheriff's Office, the two were located by SBCSO deputies along with the San Jose Police Department at a hotel in San Jose Wednesday around 7 p.m.
Officials say Luz helped Zavala during his escape and SBCSO is recommending full prosecution of her as well. The Sheriff's Office adds, they are working with San Benito County to address staffing concerns following this incident.
UPDATE ON MAY 26, 2024 AT 11:30 AM - San Benito County Supervisor Kollin Kosmicki told KION the low staffing level at the San Benito County Jail is a distraction to the real issue at hand.
Kosmicki says there needs to be an internal investigation into how the staff was managed at the time the inmate escaped.
Supervisor Kosmicki says there are 11 funded vacancies at the sheriff's office. Eight of those unfilled vacancies are at the jail.
In 2024, Sheriff Eric Taylor asked for 16 new positions including 11 for the jail. Kosmicki says the focus must be filling the vacant positions before asking for more.
He also says the focus should not be on staffing but on how the jail is being managed.
"This is not a staffing issue, this is something else," said Kosmicki. I'm concerned about potential management issues that might arise from this,"
The county says it would not be fiscally responsible to grant the Sheriff's Office request for 16 new positions because of recent pay increases of 7% for county employees.
The county says they have been supportive of the Sheriff's Office have added more positions at that location than at any other department.
Taylor said that they have ended the search perimeter for Lopez Zavala around the jail and Airport Way area but they are still looking for Lopez Zavala.
San Benito County Sheriff's Office searching for escaped inmate, Sheriff says low staffing led to inmate escaping from jail
SAN BENITO COUNTY, CALIF. (KION-TV)- The San Benito County Sherriff's Office is searching for an inmate who escaped the San Benito County Correctional Facility Tuesday morning.
At around 1:53 a.m., officials say 38-year-old Daniel Lopez Zavala escaped the facility by jumping over a barbed wire fence and left on foot.
San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor said that multiple agencies and all available resources are being used to apprehend Zavala.
Taylor said they used multiple K9 dogs to track down Zavala. Deputies were able to recover the clothing was wearing at the time of his escape but the K9 dogs lost track of the scent near an industrial building on the 1800 block of Airport Way.
Sheriff Taylor added that Flint Road has been shut down but they are allowing Amazon vehicles to go in and out of the distribution facility.
An internal investigation will be conducted on what led to Zavala escaping from the San Benito County Jail, per Taylor.
"I am frustrated," Taylor said. "If we do find that there were policy violations then people on our staff will be held accountable for that."
Taylor said that Zavala was part of an inmate cleaning crew at the time of his escape.
Zavala was booked at the San Benito County Jail since Jan. 31.
"And I told her, I said, make sure you keep all under lock," said a San Benito County resident. "And if the doorbell rings, you go and look at the camera and make sure you know who it is."
Taylor said he did not want to make excuses for Zavala escaping but he did add that if the Sheriff's Office had more staffing then Zavala would remain in jail.
"I have one employee that watches the control room watching two separate facilities," Taylor said. "It is an absolute frustration as Sheriff to be so resource-poor here and it is an alarm I have raised for years."
Taylor said he will continue to ask the San Benito County Board of Supervisors to increase his budget to be able to hire more deputies.
"We did not have enough patrol cars for staff that we called in to go look out for this individual," Taylor said. "I have people in unmarked cars that we use for office staff that are out looking for this person in patrol cars."
Lopez Zavala has had a history of attacking jail staff and fleeing law enforcement staff. Lopez Zavala is a non-sentenced inmate according to Taylor.
Zavala was last seen wearing a brown jail shirt, orange jail pants, and black shoes. He's 6 feet and 1 inch tall and weighs 190 pounds with short hair and brown eyes.
Deputies said that Zavala has tattoos on his chest that say “San Benito County” and “Hollis", tattoos on his right and left arms and shoulders that include skulls and portraits of females.
Zavala also has a back tattoo that says “ESN”, a right abdomen tattoo that says “Alexia” and a left abdomen tattoo saying “Amaya”.
Zavala lives in Hollister and is associated with local gangs in the area.
Past charges given to Daniel Lopez Zavala include two counts of resisting/obstructing peace officer, possession of paraphernalia and other misdemeanor charges, felony gun charges, and child abuse charges.
If you see Zavala, please call 911 or you can TEXT-A-TIP to 888777 by typing TIP SBCSO followed by your message.
