Slaying Suspect Assumes Cellmate’s ID, Walks Out Of Jail

SAN ANTONIO, TX.(AP) – A man charged with murder walked out of the Bexar County Jail after pretending to be his cellmate, a ruse that apparently worked because of a miscommunication among jail workers, a county official said Monday.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said three workers handled David Sauceda, 27, before his release and that there appeared to be a breakdown of communication somewhere in the process. Sauceda walked out early Sunday morning when he recited the personal information of his cellmate, Michael Garcia, according to the sheriff’s department.

An unidentified person had posted bond for Garcia, who is jailed on a felony auto theft charge. Sauceda was loose for more than six hours before authorities realized he had escaped, officials told the San Antonio Express-News. He was still at large Monday, said Sheriff Rolando Tafolla’s office, adding that no other new information was available. Sauceda is considered armed and dangerous.

Wolff said that when officers went to retrieve Garcia, Sauceda stepped forward and recited Garcia’s serial number. When Sauceda’s fingerprints, taken by another jail employee, didn’t match those on file for Garcia, Sauceda was taken for a fingerprint check using the jail’s Live Scan technology.

Using Live Scan, Sauceda’s profile, including his photo, was pulled up instead of Garcia’s. A third jail employee, Wolff said, confirmed that Sauceda was the same person in the profile, and he was released. “Somehow in there the communication between the two did not go well,” Wolff said. “It sounds like it’s human error. We don’t know for sure.”

A message left for Sauceda’s attorney of record was not immediately returned Monday. Wolff said it appears Garcia was complicit in letting Sauceda use his information, but that a full investigation will be done. “He’s being questioned,” Wolff said. “They’re going to try to get to bottom of it.”

Tafolla told the San Antonio Express-News that Sauceda and Garcia are members of the Mexican Mafia, a violent prison gang based in Texas. Sauceda also is charged with aggravated robbery and burglary with intent to commit assault. He and his brother, Jesse Sauceda, were charged with killing of a San Antonio man last year, and with robbing a 59-year-old woman after binding her with duct tape, the newspaper reported.

Sauceda was booked into the Nueces County jail in 2006 for unlawful possession of firearm by a felon. He was transferred to Bexar County in January after the outstanding murder charge was discovered, said Maria Medrano of the Nueces County Sheriff’s office.

Medrano said Nueces County dropped the firearm charge because of the more serious murder charge. Corpus Christi attorney James Lawrence, who was to represent Sauceda on the firearm charge, said he hasn’t had contact with Sauceda and isn’t representing him.

(Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

— Edited and posted to KVIA.com by Miguel Martinez