County jail prisoner escapes, taken back into custody after daylong manhunt

Karnes City resident Jason Cruz (22) escaped from the Karnes County Jail Friday morning and a nine-hour-long manhunt and search of the Karnes City area ended with him back in custody that afternoon.

Cruz was pulled out of an attic on Esplanade Street some time around 4:45 p.m. He was handcuffed and escorted back to the Karnes County jail. He submitted to arrest without a fight.

In a city filled with friends and relatives, he found refuge at the home of a friend after being turned away by an uncle earlier in the day. Police were tipped off to his location by an anonymous phone call minutes before the arrest.

He’s being held on $175,000 bond and faces a mandatory 15-year sentence if convicted on the third-degree felony charge of escape.

Cruz’s face was a familiar sight at the Karnes County Jail, according to Jalufka, and his knowledge of the area allowed him the opportunity to escape.

His holding cell wasn’t exactly a modern achievement in criminal justice, Jalufka said. There aren’t any bars on the cell, just a thick metal door with a small hole about six inches wide and ten inches long. A manual sliding lock holds the door in place while a keyed deadbolt adds extra security.

It’s difficult enough to escape from if everything’s locked up tightly, but the morning of February 9, it wasn’t. The cell doesn’t contain a toilet, so detainees have to be let out every few hours to use the restroom.

Cruz was let out at 6:30 a.m. that morning for just that purpose. When a jailer put him back, he secured the manual sliding latch, but neglected to turn the key in the deadbolt. Cruz reached his arm through the small hole in the metal door, lifted up the latch, and freed himself, according to the sheriff’s department.

A door to the side of the small cell door leads out into an open area behind the jail where a tall fence strung with razor wire guards the perimeter. Police say Cruz threw his bed’s mattress over the razor wire, and then used a nearby gate hinge as a foothold to climb up and over.

Compounding the problem was the fact that Cruz hadn’t been issued the standard white jumpsuit county jail detainees wear. When he left the jail grounds, he was in his street clothes and wouldn’t have looked out of place to any passersby.

One courthouse employee said he saw Cruz walking away from the jail area, but didn’t think anything of the sight because Cruz wasn’t running and was wearing street clothes.

The jailer responsible for not following standard protocol (locking the door adequately and dressing Cruz properly) has been suspended without pay pending an investigation, Jalufka said.

After his escape, Cruz bounced around Karnes City, looking for help from family and friends.

Jalufka got on the phone with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and requested immediate assistance. They sent out bloodhounds to search for Cruz’s scent. Help started pouring in after that.

One of Jalufka’s friends at the Department of Public Safety in San Antonio offered to send out a search helicopter, the Texas Rangers tracking team volunteered their services, and the Wilson County Sheriff’s Department volunteered manpower. Officials from the GEO Group Correctional Facility, John B. Connally Unit, and the Garza Unit in Beeville participated in the search along with officers from the Karnes City and Kenedy police departments.

Cruz had nearly every major law enforcement entity in the state looking for him, along with most of the county’s police and correctional forces. Meanwhile, all the schools in Karnes County’s four school districts remained in lockdown status.

The dogs caught bits of Cruz’s scent here and there, following his trail, but always one step behind him. A major break in the search didn’t come until the anonymous phone call that led to his capture in the afternoon.

The address listed as the place of arrest is 714 Esplanade. Jalufka and County Attorney Bob Busselman say it’s possible one or more people at that residence could be charged for harboring and aiding an escaped prisoner.

Any forthcoming arrests will be dependent on the findings of the Texas Rangers, who are independently investigating the entire matter at Jalufka’s request.

Cruz had been booked in jail at 12:30 a.m. February 9 after a Kenedy police officer allegedly found seven grams of cocaine inside his vehicle during a traffic stop.

Jalufka said the jailbreak brings to light security gaps in the jail’s construction that desperately need correcting. The holding cell Cruz was in is just one of the many problems he pointed out that need to be solved.

"It is something that needs to be addressed. I do not know that we have a quick answer or fix to it. There’s no question that it would be good if we had a new jail, but … I just don’t see that we’re going to be building a new jail at this time," County Judge Alger Kendall, Jr. said. "If there are some things that need to be done, we’ll certainly take a look at that. I know we need to keep this jail open, even though we can only house a few prisoners."

Financial estimates to build new jail have been anywhere between $3 million and $5 million, and Kendall said the county doesn’t have that kind of capital to invest, right now.

Jalufka said he’s confident that, with the recent jailbreak, the money to at least fix some of the jail’s more glaring problems will surface.

Several of the local schools had to implement their emergency plans during the time Cruz was out of custody. Karnes City ISD Superintendent Eli Casey said the experience was hard on his district, which sits closest in proximity to where the jailbreak happened.

Some of the school buildings could not be used because students were not allowed to walk out in the open. Lunch schedules had to be completely rearranged. Some students weren’t allowed to walk home like they normally do.

Each school bus transporting students had to have an extra staff member. Each child was dropped off right in front of their home, and a staff member on the bus had to make sure a parent was home before leaving any student at a stop.

Karnes City’s home basketball game against Yorktown was canceled and students competing in the out-of-town powerlifting meet had to have police escort them onto the bus.

"There were like 100 decisions we had to make," Casey said. "I think it was a blessing in disguise. It’s made us go through all the steps of our emergency plan that we’ve been working on for six months. Now, that’s going to help us fine tune and make some changes … to get ready for a future occurrence that could be much worse."

Parents were very cooperative with the matter at hand.

"The public here was wonderful. We changed their schedule … and they took it in the right vein. They knew we were trying to make their kids safe. We did not have any parent complain or holler at us. I’ve been a superintendent in three states and lots of Texas schools and I’ve never had this kind of support before from the public."