OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Officials say both inmates, including an accused murderer, are back in custody after escaping from the Oklahoma County Jail on Friday morning.
Just before 7 a.m. on Friday, the Oklahoma County Detention Center (OCDC) was notified by the Oklahoma City Police Department that they had detained an man found injured and walking. The man was identified as Jose Balentin Hernandez, an inmate from the Oklahoma County Detention Center.
Officials from OCDC then determined both Hernandez and his cellmate, identified as Pablo Daniel Robledo, were both missing from the facility.
Video footage reviewed by OCDC showed Robledo south of the detention center at approximately 5:25 a.m. The two inmates had escaped from the 12th story window using what appears to be bed sheets tied into a rope.
Hernandez is back in custody and has been transported to a medical facility for treatment for undetermined injuries resulting from his escape. It is believed he may have broken his leg.
For hours, law enforcement officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma City Fire Department, and Midwest City Police Department, actively searched for Robledo.
Robledo was in jail for murder. He was arrested last year in connection to the shooting death of Arnuflo McClallan, 30. Shortly after 2 p.m., MSgt. Gary Knight, with the Oklahoma City Police Department, confirmed to KFOR that Robledo was back in custody.
OCDC has verified and accounted for all remaining individuals in its custody.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 155 released the following statement:
“We feel that this event is primarily the result of Commissioner Kevin Calvey’s dirtypolitics, rush to create the jail trust and lack of knowledge in jail operations. We also believe this is cause for Calvey’s immediate removal from the Jail Trust Authority board of directors. Calvey has made wild ironeous accusations of mis- management against the sheriff. While he infact has created political situations that have undermined the sheriff. Clavey has always said it was not the money. Well since the jail trust took over the jail they have been in the news for issues with inmate commissary, inmates being feed dinner at 1 am, bugs and roaches in the building. Calvey has tried to blame these things on the sheriff. Well, these things along with the sewage and mold have been brought to the Board if Commissioners multiple times by this lodge to protect those detention officers and deputies working in the jail while they were members of this lodge. This lodge also had an independent study done on the air quality and mold in the jail. That report was provided to the Board of Commissioners. It was ignored.”
Commissioner Kevin Calvey sent KFOR the following statement:
“Sheriff Taylor had the responsibility to maintain the jail, including the windows through which the inmates escaped, and Taylor failed. Sheriff Taylor also allowed 2 inmates to escape in the past several months when he had sole responsibility for the jail. Taylor was given millions of dollars to maintain the jail and its vehicles and to spray for bugs, but he spent the money instead on military vehicles and other unnecessary items. 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.”