2 remaining jail escapees arrested in San Francisco, showed no major resistance, police say


Hossein Nayeri, left, Jonathan Tieu, and Bac Duong escaped from the Orange County Men’s Central Jail. Duong surrendered Friday in Santa Ana, and Nayeri and Tieu were captured Saturday in San Francisco.
(Orange County's Sheriff's Department)


Anh Do, Matt Stevens, Taylor Goldenstein and Richard Winton Contact Reporters


The two remaining fugitives who escaped from an Orange County jail last week were arrested by San Francisco police, authorities said Saturday.

The suspects were taken into custody around 9 a.m., according to San Francisco police Officer Grace Gatpandan. Another San Francisco police official said that the arrest took place near Haight and Stanyan streets in the Haight Ashbury district and that the suspects showed no major resistance.

Officials had said Friday that Hossein Nayeri, 37, and Jonathan Tieu, 20, were probably in the Bay Area and might be headed to Fresno.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department scheduled a briefing for noon in Santa Ana.

A third escapee, Bac Duong, surrendered to Orange County authorities Friday in Santa Ana, a week after the three escaped from the Santa Ana lockup.

The arrests cap a massive manhunt for the three men, who all were charged with violent crimes.

At first, the fugitives were still believed to be in Southern California. But over the past day, authorities said they received information that Tieu and Nayeri were in the Bay Area. A motel manager in San Jose told local TV stations late Friday that he recognized Tieu and said the pair might have stayed at his motel for two nights.

Duong had traveled north with the men but later returned alone to Santa Ana, where he gave himself up, according to Lt. Jeff Hallock, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Duong, 43, surrendered to police at 11:21 a.m. Friday at a business in the 1400 block of North Harbor Boulevard after a friend called police, Santa Ana police Sgt. Don Humphrey said.

Tri Nguyen, who identified himself as an acquaintance of Duong's, said the escapee walked into the business about 11 a.m. and told Nguyen's girlfriend, who worked there, that he wanted to turn himself in. The woman called police, he said, and soon the business was swarming with law enforcement agents, guns drawn.

Nguyen and his girlfriend had known Duong for many years before he went to jail, Nguyen said.

"I feel good for him because he did the right thing" in turning himself in, Nguyen said. "He doesn't have to run around anymore."

Duong has been cooperating with investigators, according to Hallock, though he would not say whether Duong tipped police off to Nayeri and Tieu's whereabouts.

"We are coming after you. … We will take you back into custody," Hallock said, addressing the remaining fugitives directly during a news briefing.


O.C. jail escapee was ordered deported in 1998 but remained in U.S.

The arrests came after law enforcement made its most public show of force in the hunt for the fugitives, which had been in its second week. Armored vehicles and deputies in tactical gear descended on Westminster Avenue on Thursday night, executing a pair of search warrants that were filmed by television news cameras.

The searches, which focused on a residence and a warehouse, did not result in any arrests, Hallock said.

Officials also revealed new details about the alleged relationship between one of the fugitives and an English-language teacher who is accused of aiding in the jailbreak.

The teacher, 44-year-old Nooshafarin Ravaghi, exchanged handwritten letters with Nayeri, and formed a bond with him that was "much closer and much more personal than it should have been," Hallock said.

Ravaghi is being held on suspicion of being an accessory in the brazen jailbreak. She will appear in court on Monday and is ineligible for bail, Hallock said.

The teacher's arrest came as the police continued to hunt frantically for the escapees, all of whom were awaiting trial for violent crimes ranging from torture and kidnapping to murder.


O.C jail escapee surrenders with plea to a friend: Call police

Duong looked scared and sickly when he entered the Santa Ana auto body shop where he surrendered, witnesses said. Wearing a white shirt and jeans, with his hair shaved into a buzz cut, Duong "did not look anything like his picture," on the wanted posters, said Tim Tran, the owner of the shop where he surrendered.

Duong had lived in rented rooms for about 10 years, until his recent arrest, according to Nguyen.

Duong surrendered as police continued to lean on Vietnamese criminal organizations that operate in the area. Detectives had filed dozens of search warrants and arrested several members of a gang Tieu was affiliated with in recent days.

The trio escaped from the Santa Ana lockup sometime after 5 a.m. Jan. 22, cutting through four layers of steel, metal and rebar as they moved through the jail's plumbing tunnels and an air duct. They ascended to the roof, one floor above the dormitory area where they had been housed, and used a rope of knotted bedsheets and cloth to rappel down the side of the building.

The escape went undetected for at least 16 hours, and the Orange County Sheriff's Department has come under fire for allowing the escapees to gain such a head start.

As the manhunt entered its eighth day, police seemed to be splitting their focus between Nayeri's relationship with Ravaghi and Tieu and Duong's connections to the local Vietnamese community and organized crime.

Hallock said Friday that there was a "Vietnamese organized crime element" to the escape, but he declined to elaborate. Several people were detained at a home Thursday night during one of the searches, but they were not arrested.


ESL teacher may have played a 'significant role' in helping 3 O.C. inmates escape

Earlier in the week, police arrested several people who either knew the escapees or were members of a street gang with which Tieu is affiliated.

Ravaghi, an English-as-a-second-language teacher, met Nayeri while teaching a course at the jail, authorities said.

Police have said she developed a bond with Nayeri that went beyond a student-teacher dynamic. The two had exchanged letters outside of class, some of which were mailed from outside the jail, Hallock said.

"The correspondence that they had in writing was of a personal nature," he said of the handwritten letters.

Ravaghi has cooperated with police, officials said, admitting that she allowed the prisoners to view a map, possibly a printed Google Earth image of the jail, which would have allowed them to see the roof of the facility.

She has denied giving the men the cutting tools they would have needed to actually reach the roof, authorities said.

Earlier this week, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens described Nayeri as the "mastermind" of the escape.

Ravaghi began teaching English in Orange County's jails in July 2014, Hallock said. Nayeri speaks English fluently, so it was not clear why he attended the class.

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