Jail Escapee a No-Show at Surrender

Kevin Jerome Pullum, whose escape from Twin Towers jail July 6 prompted a massive manhunt and an extensive Sheriff’s Department investigation into its jail security measures, negotiated the terms of his surrender late Monday night, but never turned himself in to authorities.

Pullum’s family members contacted KNBC-TV (Channel 4) and told news officials that the escaped felon would turn himself to weatherman Christopher Nance, said Sheriff’s Lt. Carl Deeley. Relatives said Pullum would arrive at Hawthorne Memorial Park and surrender.

For a few hours late Monday night, Deeley said, “a female intermediary for Pullum” had several discussions with KNBC, negotiating his surrender. KNBC would then update the Sheriff’s Department.

About 30 deputies and Hawthorne police officers, along with almost two dozen reporters, photographers and camera crews, gathered at the park, awaiting Pullum’s arrival. Sheriff Lee Baca, who returned from vacation, also was at the scene.

But at 10 p.m., Sheriff’s Capt. Ray Leyva announced: “It definitely won’t happen here.” And at midnight, authorities, who has moved to a different location several miles away, called off the negotiations.

Pullum, Leyva said, was to call Nance on his cell phone late Monday night and tell him when and where he will surrender.

“Earlier, the family members called Channel 4 directly, and they called us,” Deeley said. “We’re still waiting for him to turn himself in. Why he picked Nance, we don’t know. For some reason he just feels more comfortable turning himself in to Nance.”

Earlier in the day, Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies, led by bloodhounds, combed a Hawthorne neighborhood for nine hours searching for Pullum, but the convicted felon continued to elude them.

Deputies began their manhunt early Monday after Pullum visited his half-sister at her Hawthorne apartment. She alerted authorities shortly after he left, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Pullum, 31, fled the Twin Towers jail July 6, hours after he was convicted of attempted murder, wearing what authorities were told by an informant was a fake identification card with a picture of Eddie Murphy from “Dr. Dolittle 2” on it.

Jerryle Bradley, Pullum’s sister, said her fiance answered a knock on the door before dawn Monday and found Pullum standing there. He asked for money and stayed for five minutes--just enough time to tell his sister he loved her and give a brief explanation for his flight, she said.

“He said he wanted to be free and he was out the door,” Bradley said.

After deputies searched her building and left, Bradley said, her brother returned briefly.

For the rest of the day, deputies with handguns and assault weapons drawn were led by two bloodhounds throughout the Hawthorne area south of the airport. But they repeatedly remained at least a step behind the elusive Pullum.

After an unsuccessful search of Bradley’s apartment complex and surrounding area, deputies were led by the bloodhounds to another apartment building. Capt. Bob Malone of the Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes bureau said it appeared that his men and dogs were about an hour behind the third-striker.

Deputies spent about two hours at that building, focusing on an apartment belonging to Gwen Kisia, who was an alibi witness at Pullum’s trial for attempted murder.

Deputies broadcast warnings on a loudspeaker, telling neighbors to stay indoors and warning Pullum, if he was there, “to come out with your hands up and you will not be harmed. If you don’t, the dogs will find you and you may be bitten.” The announcement was made in English and Spanish.

Kisia, in an interview, denied seeing Pullum since his escape. But authorities say they believe the bloodhounds, which have been used to track Pullum for nine days, more than the woman.

“These dogs are not wrong; they have a phenomenal sense of smell,” Malone said. “We don’t believe she was being entirely truthful with us.”

Deputies searched the apartment with her permission and failed to turn up any clues about Pullum’s whereabouts.

The search continued until nearly 4 p.m., when the dogs lost the scent, Malone said. To Malone and others, that means Pullum likely got into a car.

“He was definitely in the area,” Malone said. “I know we were getting fresh hits.”

Pullum may have had trouble finding a long-term hiding place, Malone said, because his relatives were not willing to help him.

The fugitive has relatives in the Riverside, Lancaster and Los Angeles areas, he said, but while “they’re not prepared to turn him over to law enforcement . . . I think they’re saying, ‘Don’t come around here. Don’t involve us in your problems.’ ”

Malone added: “I believe that’s why we’re seeing this guy wandering about. He just hasn’t found a safe house.”

Bradley acknowledged Monday that her brother’s run from the law and the accompanying scrutiny by police have been stressful on her family, especially considering the death of their mother two months ago.

“My life has been so inconvenienced,” Bradley said. “I am not the criminal here. They’re invading my home. They’re scaring my children.”

Authorities say Pullum was wearing a white T-shirt with some sort of diagonal design and blue jeans, possibly with sweatpants underneath. Video shots released by the Sheriff’s Department show that at the time of his escape, he was wearing a light flowered shirt and beige pants.

Sheriff’s officials examined the tapes--and found repeated pictures of Pullum walking through the downtown facility in street clothes and wearing a badge--after being tipped off by a jailhouse informant.

They did not issue a news release until three days after his escape--after The Times published a story about it July 9.

Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman on Monday defended the department’s decision to withhold information after the escape.

Dahlman said there was no “initial panic” about Pullum’s disappearance because the jail temporarily loses track of some inmates on a daily basis. Dahlman, who oversees the custody division, himself wasn’t notified until the Sunday morning after the Friday escape.

He said inmates are sometimes missing within the downtown jail because they are hiding to avoid going to court, are housed in the wrong cells or are in the medical clinic. All of them are eventually located, Dahlman said.

Baca also was not notified of the escape for more than 24 hours.

Employees at Twin Towers pass by a security control booth but are not required to show identification. Pullum apparently walked out in a stream of civilian workers. The department does not believe anyone at the booth checked his fake badge.

Officials at other large correctional facilities around the country were stunned to hear about the manner in which Pullum escaped.

“He’s walking around with a picture of Eddie Murphy on an ID and no one noticed? That’s bad,” said Bill Cunningham, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Chicago. “One small mistake can compromise security for the entire jail.”

Cunningham said a mistake such as that could never happen at his department’s main jail site, where more than 11,000 inmates are held each day. Civilian and sworn employees are required to pass through two guarded gates to exit the building. Guards must look at each individual badge at both gates.

Since 1990, Cook County has had seven inmates escape from jail, but none has made it since 1995. In Los Angeles County jails, 13 inmates have escaped in the last five years.

In Miami, at the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, there is also an added importance on keeping gated entrances staffed with guards, including areas that are exclusively used by employees. These guards recognize strangers, said Rolando Escalante, assistant director of jail operations.

Escalante said the Miami jail has had problems in the past with inmates who have tried to make fake IDs or employee badges.

“Any time an inmate uses the library, we strip-search them,” he said. “I don’t care if they just went for a paper clip.”

Miami-Dade County has six jails that hold about 6,600 people. Each jail has two entrances: a main entrance for visitors and a separate door for employees.

*

Times staff writers Elise Gee and Sarah Hale contributed to this story.