Law enforcement officials on Thursday apprehended a convicted murderer who escaped a prison in Nevada, where he was serving a life sentence for the fatal 2007 Luxor Hotel bombing in Las Vegas. He left behind a cardboard dummy of himself and managed to get out through a cell window.
Nevada Governor, Steve Sisolak, ordered an investigation of the escape after authorities informed his office on Tuesday that the inmate had been missing from the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Indian Springs, since Friday night.
Prison officials did not realize Porfirio Duarte-Herrera was missing until Tuesday morning, when the correctional center in Indian Springs did a headcount. Information is not available about why it took more than three days to discover he was missing. The Southern Desert Correctional Center is a medium security prison. It was put on full lockdown after the escape was discovered.
At the time of his escape, Duarte-Herrera was serving a life sentence for murdering a hot dog stand vendor. He used a motion-activated bomb that he had placed on top of a car at the Luxor Hotel. In 2010, he was convicted of murder.
Duarte’s co-defendant, Omar Rueda-Denvers, is still in custody. Rueda-Denvers is from Guatemala and is serving a life sentence for murder, attempted murder, and explosives, among other charges, at a different prison in Nevada.
The jury spared both men from the death penalty in the death of the boyfriend of Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.
According to Governor Sisolak, the kind of security lapse that allowed the convict’s escape cannot be permitted, and the people responsible would be dealt with. He said that his office had ordered a complete and thorough investigation into the event by correction officials.
Duarte-Herrera, an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua, was convicted of killing Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, 24, who was, at the time, dating Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend. Duarte-Herrera, who was already serving a life sentence without parole, was sentenced to 19 to 50 years more for the 2007 bombing. At first, the blast raised fears and concerns about a terrorist attack on the Las Vegas strip. Prosecutors concluded that the motive of the attack was jealousy.
While in prison, Duarte-Herrera was also convicted of another bombing that occurred in 2006, several months before the Luxor Hotel bombing. In 2006, he planted a bomb in a parked pickup truck that exploded outside a Home Depot in downtown Las Vegas.
According to authorities, the powerful bomb was set off by an electric timer. The blast sent pieces of metal flying all over and onto a busy street. Luckily, the red-light traffic signal was on, so no one was walking near the car. The explosion did not injure or kill anyone.
The escaped convict was captured without incident after someone identified him and alerted police.