> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Escaped inmate was considered ‘low risk’ - URL: https://www.smdp.com/escaped-inmate-was-considered-low-risk/ - Published: 2005-05-06T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T06:55:22.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: Crime, Downtown, #archive-import, Homeless *Series of errors being blamed for allowing inmate to escape* DOWNTOWN LA — The man suspected of kidnapping a Santa Monica woman twice last year remains at large after he escaped police custody on Tuesday. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for Alfonzo Fitzgerald Taylor, 41, who walked away from the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center the day before his jury trial was set to begin on charges of receiving stolen property and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle. Taylor also was awaiting trial on seven felony counts relating to two separate kid-nappings of a Sunset Park woman last fall. On two occasions — Oct. 18 and Nov. 4 — Taylor allegedly stole from and threatened an elderly woman who lives in the 1000 block of Bay Street with a syringe and screwdriver. He also allegedly threatened to burn down her house. Taylor appeared in court on Tuesday for a pre-trial conference for a jury trial that was set to begin on Wednesday for allegedly stealing a car in Las Vegas and resisting a police officer, among other charges. Sheriff Lee Baca said employee slip-ups allowed Taylor to slip away from the criminal courts building. Despite that Taylor had pending felony charges, and that he has attempted to escape custody before, the sheriff’s department had classified him as a low-risk security inmate at the Northern County Correctional Facility in Santa Clarita. Taylor’s classification allowed him to have “trustee” or “worker” status, which gave him more privileges to move around while in custody, said LA County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. “That was a mistake we made at the front end, but there was more than one mistake,” he said. “Not only because he was a kidnapping suspect, but he previously tried to escape state prison.” Taylor — who is black, and is described as six feet, four inches tall, 215 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes — apparently had access to a room in the courthouse that stores prison-issued jumpsuits. Taylor appeared in the courtroom on Tuesday wearing a green jumpsuit — which indicates he was an inmate. He then apparently switched into a white jumpsuit, which signifies a released inmate. “Then he walked out a back door,” Whitmore said. Authorities discovered Taylor missing at about 6 a.m. on Wednesday when he wasn’t accounted for at the correctional facility, where he had been in custody awaiting his fate. Sheriff’s deputies failed to notice that Taylor was missing when he was supposed to board the bus to be transported back to the correctional facility. Inmates are scanned and counted each time they are transported to and from the courthouse. “We are investigating exactly why he wasn’t found missing at the original count,” Whitmore said, adding a panel has convened to conduct an independent review of the incident. “It will come out exactly what happened and we will fix it.” The Office of Independent Review is a group comprised of six civil rights attorneys that handles investigations for the sheriff department’s internal affairs, Whitmore said. “They are involved in this knee deep,” Whitmore said. Taylor, in February, was charged with one count of kidnapping to commit another crime; two counts of first-degree burglary; two counts of first-degree residential robbery and two counts of making criminal threats in relation to the kidnapping of the Sunset Park woman. Taylor also faces one count of unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle; one count of receiving stolen property; one count of resisting a police officer and one count of driving as an unlicensed driver. Taylor is a twice-convicted felon — he served two years in state prison for a 1991 conviction for burglary and he served 12 years in state prison for a 1994 conviction for burglary. Both crimes occurred in Torrance, said DA spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons. A bench warrant was issued on Wednesday for Taylor, whose bail for the Santa Monica crimes had been set at more than $2 million. A jury trial for the Santa Monica kidnapping and burglary charges was set to begin on June 14 at the LAX Courthouse. Meanwhile, the elderly victim has left her Santa Monica home. “The victim has been relocated to a safe house,” Whitmore said, adding authorities don’t believe Taylor, a Georgia native who’s been homeless when he’s not been in custody, will return to Santa Monica, but they are taking extra precautions anyway. “The good news is everyone is safe, but the bad news is that this guy is still at large.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/050605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)