GRIMES COUNTY, Texas – The Grimes County Sheriff’s Office said an inmate who walked away while working as a kitchen trustee has been recaptured.
According to the sheriff’s office, Albino Guerrero had last been seen at the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office.
Court documents say Guerrero was seen on an exterior camera running away from the jail at about 1:21 p.m.
Only KPRC 2′s cameras were rolling as 51-year-old Albino Guerrero arrived back at the jail greeted by a huge law enforcement presence after more than seven hours on the run.
He didn’t speak as he stood in handcuffs.
Officials said Guerrero was a kitchen trustee worker unloading a food truck and walked away at approximately 1:30 p.m. He was not discovered missing until 3:47 p.m.
The sheriff’s office said that Guerrero was captured on foot near the 5400 block of State Highway 90 in Navasota at 7:58 p.m.
The sheriff said the incident is being blamed squarely on human error.
Guerrero has been in jail since last July, awaiting trial for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
An urgent manhunt got underway around 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, involving a chopper and drones after jail staff realized he’d been missing for more than two hours.
The sheriff said he has been a trustee here at the Grimes County Jail for more than a year now and Wednesday as he unloaded a truck full of food, he took off his jail clothes and ran away.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It looks like we blew it with human error, not monitoring the inmates,” said Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell. “We dropped the ball. Simple as that. The buck stops with me. They took four out to unload and brought three in and apparently didn’t count them and two hours later we had a oh, my goodness moment.”
Wednesday night, Guerrero is charged with another felony for the escape.
As for how it happened, the sheriff said that’s all under investigation and they have not ruled out the possibility that this could have been an inside job.