Search continues for convicted murderer after brazen escape in Central California
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(DELANO, Calif.) — A convicted murderer remained on the loose Tuesday and was the subject of a massive manhunt in Central California, where authorities allege he escaped from a prison van while being transferred to a courthouse.
Cesar Hernandez, who was convicted of first-degree murder in Los Angeles County in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, escaped Monday morning in the Central San Joaquin Valley town of Delano.
“The public should not confront this suspect as he is considered dangerous,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said in a social media post Tuesday afternoon.
The CDCR released new details on 34-year-old Hernandez’s escape. Authorities said Hernandez was being driven to a court appearance at the Kern County Superior Court in downtown Delano when he escaped around 10:40 a.m. local time on Monday.
“Upon arrival, Hernandez evaded staff custody, jumped out of the van, and is currently at large,” the CDCR said in a statement.
Hernandez was last seen wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and white thermals, the CDCR said. He is described as 5-foot-5 and weighing about 161 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
Hernandez was convicted of murder in Los Angeles County in 2019 and sentenced to 25 years to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, a second-strike offense, according to the CDCR.
Multiple law enforcement agencies — including agents from CDCR’s Special Services Unit, the California Highway Patrol and the Delano and McFarland police departments — were continuing to search for Hernandez Tuesday afternoon in the Delano area, about 33 miles north of Bakersfield.
In a safety alert to the Central California community, authorities urged people to “report any suspicious activity or sightings immediately.”
(GREEN LAKE, Wis.) — A husband and father of three who vanished at a Wisconsin lake this summer may have faked his own death and fled to Eastern Europe, authorities said, and the sheriff is now urging the missing man to come forward.
“Our most important thing, for us, is to know that you’re safe,” Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in his message to Ryan Borgwardt. “We can talk through all this and we can work things out.”
The case began on the morning of Aug. 12, when authorities learned Borgwardt, 45, hadn’t returned home and was last known to be on Green Lake, according to the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Borgwardt last texted his wife on the night of Aug. 11, saying he was turning his kayak around and heading to shore soon, Podoll said.
Officials discovered Borgwardt’s overturned kayak and life jacket in the lake, authorities said, and they later found his fishing rod and tackle box.
Responders believed the missing dad drowned and they scoured the lake using divers, drones, sonar and cadaver K-9s, officials said.
“The search continued for about 54 days, with no sign of Ryan,” the sheriff said during a news conference on Friday. “Near daily drone searches were completed. And Bruce’s Legacy [a volunteer search organization] methodically searched approximately 1,500 acres. … Keith Cormican, [who leads] Bruce’s Legacy, sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images.”
“Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred,” the sheriff said.
The case took a turn in October when investigators discovered Borgwardt’s name had been checked by law enforcement in Canada on Aug. 13, the sheriff said.
Authorities also learned Borgwardt had been communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan, the sheriff said.
Other behavior included clearing his browsers the day he disappeared, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks, getting a new life insurance policy, obtaining a new passport and replacing his laptop hard drive, the sheriff said.
“I was totally shocked,” Podoll told ABC News on Monday. “It was just unbelievable that we would have a case like this where some party actually staged his death.”
Authorities have stopped searching the lake.
“As far as we know, he’s someplace in Eastern Europe,” the sheriff told ABC News.
Investigators are “looking into what charges could be filed,” Podoll said, adding, “that’s a work in progress.”
Authorities hope to pursue restitution for the expenses of the search, the sheriff’s office said.
“He wasted a lot of my time and it cost me a lot of money,” Cormican of Bruce’s Legacy said.
Podoll said it’s not clear if Borgwardt was given help, and he urged anyone with information to come forward.
Podoll praised Borgwardt’s wife, whom he said was not involved, calling her “a very, very strong lady.”
“I was there when the sheriff broke the news to the whole family. And it was pretty, pretty heart-wrenching to see,” Cormican told ABC News. “I feel horrible for the family. They’re the ones that are going to really struggle.”
ABC News’ Karolina Rivas contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — Two fast-moving brush fires erupted Tuesday in Los Angeles as dangerous wind conditions and unseasonably dry, warm weather sweep Southern California.
A currently 200-acre fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood was first reported before 11:00 a.m. local time and quickly prompted evacuations across the region and into Malibu.
The Los Angeles Fire Department issued a mandatory evacuation order for the area between Piedra Morada Drive and Pacific Coast Highway.
A separate brush fire is threatening the West Hollywood area, with crews working to contain the blaze on Sunset Boulevard between San Vicente and Crescent Heights.
The cause of both fires is currently under investigation, according to Cal Fire.
A “life-threatening” and “destructive” windstorm is also expected from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning across much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, according to the National Weather Service. Areas that are not typically windy will also be impacted, the agency said.
Much of Southern California is under red flag alerts for fire danger from Tuesday through Thursday as strong Santa Ana winds, low humidity and critically dry fuels jeopardize the region.
According to Cal Fire, residents in Greater Los Angeles County, San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, San Diego and Riverside mountains, eastern San Diego valleys, Inland Orange County, Santa Ana Mountains, Inland Empire and San Bernardino Foothills should be prepared in case of an evacuation order.
“Stay vigilant, avoid activities that could spark fires and have an evacuation plan ready,” Cal Fire said in an update Tuesday on X.
On Monday evening, California Gov. Gavin Newsom directed state departments to position fire engines, handcrews, aircraft and additional support in areas that could be impacted.
“The state is taking early, proactive steps to coordinate with local partners to protect communities as dangerous weather enters our state. We are no strangers to winter-time wildfire threats, so I ask all Californians to pay attention to local authorities and be prepared to evacuate if told to go,” Newsom said in a statement.
In addition, drought conditions have returned to much of Southern California, according to an update from the U.S. Drought Monitor that was released last week.
Moderate drought now is currently in place from Los Angeles to San Diego, leaving very dry vegetation that can potentially fuel a spark and create a wildfire.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MIAMI, FLORIDA) — As Election Day nears, Donald Trump is continuing his long-standing effort to recast the violent events of Jan. 6, 2021, now calling it a “day of love” even as he tries to distance himself from what happened.
A Republican audience member, during a Univision town hall on Wednesday, pressed Trump on his actions that day as thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, temporarily disrupting the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.
“I want to give you an opportunity to win back my vote,” the participant said, adding he found Trump’s actions and alleged inaction on Jan. 6 a “little disturbing” and wanted to know why some of Trump’s former top administration officials are no longer supporting him — some even calling him a danger to national security and democracy.
Trump quickly went on defense and in the process repeated some false or misleading claims that have been long disproved or debunked.
The former president said he “totally disagreed” with then-Vice President Mike Pence’s adamance to his constitutional duty to uphold the certification process and not unilaterally reject the election results. Pence has said he is not endorsing Trump this cycle.
Trump then claimed thousands of his supporters who traveled to Washington “didn’t come because of me,” despite his posting on social media in mid-December 2020 that there would be a “big protest” on Jan. 6.
“Be there, will be wild!” Trump famously wrote on Twitter, where he’d amassed some 88 million followers.
One man who admitted to illegally entering the Capitol that day, Stephen Ayres, testified in court documents and before the House Jan. 6 committee that he was influenced heavily by Trump’s activity on social media to come to Washington for the rally at the Ellipse.
“They came because of the election,” Trump said on Wednesday. “They thought the election was a rigged election, and that’s why they came. Some of those people went down to the Capitol but I said peacefully and patriotically. Nothing done wrong at all.”
Trump went on to say, “Ashli Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. There were no guns down there.”
Babbitt, a 35-year-old Trump supporter and Air Force veteran, was fatally shot by a U.S. Capitol Police officer as one of a group of rioters who tried to break into the House floor through barricaded entrances near the Speaker’s Lobby.
She was one of several people who died during or after the riot of various causes. Four officers who responded to the Capitol attack later died by suicide. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was pepper sprayed by rioters, suffered strokes and died the next day. A Washington medical examiner determined he died of natural causes but said his experience that day played a role.
The Justice Department has noted that in court it has been proven that “weapons used and carried on Capitol grounds include firearms; OC spray; tasers; edged weapons, including a sword, axes, hatchets, and knives; and makeshift weapons, such as destroyed office furniture, fencing, bike racks, stolen riot shields, baseball bats, hockey sticks, flagpoles, PVC piping, and reinforced knuckle gloves.”
More than 1,500 people have been federally charged with crimes associated with the Capitol attack, the Justice Department said earlier this year. That includes 571 charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents and 171 defendants charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.
At least 943 individuals have pleaded guilty — including 161 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement and 67 who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous or deadly weapon — and an additional 195 people have been found guilty at trial.
Approximately 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot, the DOJ has said.
Jan. 6 began with Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, in which he did tell supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol, as he now likes to note, but also stoked tensions by saying they have to “fight like hell” or they wouldn’t have a country.
“But that was a day of love,” Trump said at the Univision town hall. “From the standpoint of the millions, it’s like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I’ve ever spoken to before. They asked me to speak. I went and I spoke, and I used the term ‘peacefully and patriotically.'”
The comments come as Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance continue to deny the 2020 election outcome and downplay what transpired on Jan. 6.
Vance on Wednesday when asked if Trump lost the election replied, “No, I think there are serious problems in 2020 so did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use.”
Vance has also said he wouldn’t have certified the election were he in Pence’s shoes in 2021.
The election denialism and Jan. 6 comments have prompted swift push back from Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris has cast Trump as a threat to democracy as the 2024 campaign enters its final weeks.
ABC News’ Jack Date, Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
