After Five Days on the Outside, Chino Escapee Turns Himself In

CHINO —  A convicted armed robber who escaped from a prison work crew is back inside the fences of the California Institution for Men hereafter turning himself in to correctional officers, a prison spokesman said Monday.

Patrick Ramirez, 29, telephoned the prison watch commander Sunday afternoon to offer his surrender, five days after he fled the prison, said Lt. Paul Washington, public information officer for the California Institution for Men.

Ramirez agreed that prison officials would pick him up “at an Ontario residence,” Washington said, and the prisoner was taken back into custody Sunday evening.

Washington would not specify the location of Ramirez’s surrender, nor give the reason for its selection.

Before his surrender, Ramirez was last seen last Tuesday, working with an irrigation crew outside the prison’s security fence but within its perimeter fence.

A supervisor’s informal count about 2:25 that afternoon found Ramirez absent, prompting a full count of the prison’s minimum-security section. Shortly before 4 p.m., the count confirmed that Ramirez was missing, and area law enforcement agencies were notified, Washington said.

Officers Join in Search

About 100 officers from the Department of Corrections, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and three police departments were called in to search for Ramirez.

And to warn neighbors, prison officials passed out flyers and lit a blue beacon, which they had installed in the wake of the infamous 1983 Chino Hills Massacre, in which Kevin Cooper murdered four people and attempted to kill another after he had escaped from the Chino prison.

“Anytime you’re dealing with an escaped felon,” Washington said, “you should always consider him dangerous.”

Ramirez had been serving a seven-year sentence since May, 1983. He was convicted on two counts of armed robbery and one of grand theft in San Bernardino County. Through the prison work-incentive program, his release date had been moved up to December, 1986, Washington said.

No charges had yet been filed against Ramirez in connection with his escape, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino district attorney’s office said Monday.