Year in review — Escape prompts changes at jail

Staff writer

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Editor’s note: This is No. 2 on the list of most compelling stories published in the Portales News-Tribune in 2014, as determined by the PNT staff.

In July, an inmate Roosevelt County jail officials later learned was a murder suspect escaped while on a work detail at the county fairgrounds.

Senovio Mendoza Jr., an Eddy County inmate being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Center, assaulted a county employee, stole his vehicle and led Texas police on a high-speed chase before being captured in Sudan, according to officials.

The incident led to major changes in the jail’s policies when it comes to housing inmates for other counties, according to Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton.

“We’ve made significant changes in policies and contractual agreements with other facilities in terms of housing inmates, from Eddy, Curry, Quay and other counties,” said Hamilton, who has been the manager since October.

“We’ve made changes as far as which types of inmates will be housed in (the jail),” she said. “We also now put inmates that we hold (for other facilities) through a series of background checks to find out what they were convicted of and what sentences they were given.”

Jail officials said they were not aware of Mendoza’s murder charge until after his escape.

Mendoza, 32, at the time of his escape, was assisting a county maintenance employee at the Roosevelt County Fairgrounds.

Mendoza escaped when he hit the county employee with a pickax, taped his arms and legs with duct tape and stole the employee’s wallet and car keys. A second inmate, who was returning from using the bathroom, freed the employee when he heard his cries for help.

The employee was treated at Roosevelt General Hospital and released the same day.

As for Mendoza, he was spotted in the employee’s car by former Roosevelt County Manager Charlene Webb driving on N.M. 202. Webb alerted Texas law officials who then intercepted the vehicle near Muleshoe. When Mendoza realized law enforcement was onto him, he tried to escape them, leading to a high-speed chase, before being caught. Mendoza was charged with reckless driving, evading arrest with a vehicle and assault on a public servant.

Mendoza was kept in the custody of Texas law enforcement before being returned to Eddy County, according to jail Administrator David Casanova.

As a result of the escape, the county jail’s work release program was suspended.

“We will address the program’s potential reinstatement next year,” Hamilton said. “However, if we restart the program, new polices will be added to that as well.”

Casanova said he would like to see the program reinstated, but only under the right guidelines.

In addition to changes in policy, there have been improvements in the security at the jail, including new processing systems and additional security cameras.

“The (county) commission and county took this incident very seriously and was something that we obviously didn’t want to happen, but we have learned from it,” Hamilton said. “Things have been operating very smoothly since we’ve made these enhancements. Training and security have been advanced to ensure an optimal level of safety.”