Two more Yakima Jail inmates captured

YAKIMA — Two more inmates were in custody in Yakima at midday today, leaving just two escapees still at large after a jailbreak that briefly freed nine maximum-security prisoners from the Yakima County Jail on Friday night.

The men captured today, Santos Luera, 20, and Terry Moser, 25, were found hiding in the attic of a one-story home occupied by a relative of Luera. Police had considered Luera the most dangerous of the escapees. He was scheduled to stand trial next month on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of his half-brother in a Yakima home late last year.

Police are still seeking the other two escapees, identified as Luis Soto, 28, of Toppenish; and Gianno Alaimo, 26, of Yakima. Soto was facing trial Jan. 3 on a second-degree theft charge, while Alaimo had been charged with assault.

Yakima Police Sgt. Lloyd George said police had received an anonymous tip about where Luera and Moser were hiding.

Yakima Police Chief Sam Granato said they were taken into custody at about 11 a.m. without any physical resistance.

"They were verbally combative. They weren't happy they had been captured," Granato said.

George said police found no weapons at the house, and that police do not know how long Luera and Moser had been at the residence.

Before returning the two men to jail, Luera was taken to the hospital for treatment of a broken leg he injured during the escape, according to Granato.

The police chief said one of the two inmates who remained at large this afternoon had been spotted around 7:30 p.m. Friday, a few hours after they escaped. But he escaped on foot before officers reached the house in Yakima County where he had been hiding.

"We have no information on how they're getting around or if they're even still together," Granato said, adding that police know their best chance of catching the remaining two escapees would be for citizens to notice suspicious behavior and report it.

Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin said the investigation is ongoing throughout the state, following up on leads and reading through reports, but he added, they have "no excellent leads at this time."

The inmates apparently escaped shortly after 5 p.m. Friday through the ceiling of a cell in their unit, on the top floor of the four-story main jail, and gained access to the roof, county corrections spokesman Cpl. Ken Rink said.

From that roof, they used bed sheets to slide down to the roof of the adjacent one-story jail annex, then jumped to the ground.

One inmate was recaptured on the main jail roof, three were caught on the annex roof and a corrections officer spotted the fifth standing on the ground and tackled him, Rink said.

People with information about the fugitives should call the Yakima police at 509-575-6200 or the sheriff's office at 509-574-2500.

Four inmates escaped the main jail on June 5, 1994, by ramming a hole in the fourth-floor ceiling. They made their way through ductwork to a roof vent, then used another bedsheet rope to reach the annex roof. The makeshift rope broke, injuring two inmates who fell. Two of the inmates fled to Mexico, where one of them was killed in a gunfight; the other was eventually captured.