ID theft lets Texas inmate escape from jail

Associated Press


SAN ANTONIO � A man charged with murder was on the loose for more than six hours before authorities realized he had escaped from the Bexar County Jail by assuming the identity of another inmate, officials said.

Authorities from San Antonio south to the Mexican border were still searching Sunday night for David Sauceda, 27.

"We have no idea where he is," Bexar County Sheriff Roland Tafolla said Sunday night.

Sauceda walked out of jail early Sunday morning when he recited the name, address, Social Security number, birth date and system ID number of his cellmate, Michael Garcia, according to the sheriff's department.

"He had it down pat," Tafolla said.

An unidentified person had posted bond for Garcia, who is in jail on a felony auto theft charge. Tafolla said officers went to retrieve Garcia, but when they called Garcia's name, Sauceda stepped forward and repeated his cellmate's personal information.

The officers took Sauceda to booking, where a detention officer checked Sauceda's fingerprints in a computer database. Tafolla said his prints were supposed to be checked against those on file, but they came out smudged, so a sergeant ordered a detention officer to check his fingerprints using LiveScan, the jail's electronic fingerprint system.

"So he takes him over, scans his fingerprint, looks at the picture, looks at him, and says, 'It's him,' but doesn't look at the name."

Tafolla said Sauceda and Garcia are members of the Mexican Mafia. In addition to murder, Sauceda is charged with aggravated robbery, burglary with intent to commit assault and a parole violation.

Sauceda and his brother, Jesse Sauceda, were charged in the November 2006 killing of a San Antonio man, and with robbing a 59-year-old woman after binding her with duct tape.

Tafolla said the department will review its jail release procedures to figure out what went wrong.

"We made an error," Tafolla said. "I am responsible for everything that happens in the Sheriff's Office."

County Judge Nelson Wolff said the Commissioners Court will want to know what happened.

"It looks like somebody screwed up big-time," he said.

Authorities said David Sauceda is considered armed and dangerous.