From left, refugees Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong. (Courtesy Orange County Sheriff’s Department.)
One of the three inmates who brazenly escaped from the Orange County Jail in 2016 accepted Tuesday, April 11.
Jonathan Tieu, now 27, admitted taking part in the escape from the Santa Ana Central Men’s Prison and admitted helping to kidnap a taxi driver while Tieu and his fellow escapees were on the run.
Tieu was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison – but given the time he had served while awaiting trial, his release was ordered.
When asked by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary S. Paer what he intends to do after his release, Tieu – who was first arrested when he was 15 – said he would “go home and see my mother . …
“I’m going to give her a big ole kiss and a hug,” Tieu said. “It was a long time.”
“This should be a wake-up call,” the judge told Tieu, noting he could face a possible life sentence if the case went to trial. “I hope I never see you again.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t,” Tieu added.
Tieu was arrested in 2011 and charged with murder and attempted murder for the killing of 19-year-old Scottie Bui and injuring another man following a confrontation between rival Asian street gangs in Garden Grove. Tieu was not charged with firing the shots and was not suspected of being a member of a street gang. But he was accused of engaging in the deadly confrontation with friends who were gang members.
His first trial in the murder case ended in early 2015 with a hung jury.
In January 2016, while awaiting the retrial, Tieu joined the prison escape with Hossein Nayeri and Bac Duong. Prosecutors said it was Nayeri, who became one of Orange County’s most notorious inmates over the past decade, who recorded the escape using a contraband cellphone.
Over several months, inmates cut 1/2-inch steel bars to access plumbing tunnels and made makeshift ropes from bed sheets, which they laid out to access the roof through a vertical opening. They sneaked onto the roof at least twice before escaping and also used the bed sheets to roll up backpacks full of supplies, including real rope, that a Duong friend had brought right outside the prison.
In the early hours of January 22, 2016, the three men used the ropes to lower themselves from the five-story prison and slipped into a Santa Ana neighborhood. The fugitives contacted Long Ma, an unlicensed taxi driver, who testified that the men pointed a gun at him after driving them to Rosemead.
Ma said he was held against his will for five days as they moved between hotels. The cab driver said tensions between Nayeri and Duong exploded in a Bay Area motel room in a fight – prosecutors said it was over whether to kill Ma. The cab driver credited Duong with saving his life and said he persuaded Duong to drive her back to Orange County and turn himself in.
Nayeri and Tieu were arrested a day later in San Francisco, ending a massive week-long manhunt.
According to Nayeri, Ma was a willing accomplice who agreed to take the fugitives out of Southern California and find them a home where they could hide from law enforcement for $10,000. Nayeri’s lawyer claimed Ma changed his mind when he realized he could make more money by handing over the fugitives — the reward for their capture had swelled to $200,000 (others shared the money). The taxi driver, while testifying at Nayeri’s trial, contradicted his testimonies at previous trials and during police interviews, including his description of the reported firearm and who allegedly wielded it.
At a previous trial, Duong was found guilty of prison escape and kidnapping and stealing a van while the three men were on the run. Duong is serving a 20-year sentence on fugitive charges and an attempted murder conviction that landed him in prison in the first place.
At the time of the escape, Nayeri was awaiting trial for conspiring with two high school friends to kidnap, torture, and sexually mutilate a marijuana dispensary owner who they believed was worth a nonexistent million dollars buried in the Mojave Desert. He has since been convicted of kidnapping and torture and sentenced to more than two life sentences without parole. He also received an additional two years and eight months last month for his role in the escape; He was acquitted of the kidnapping charge.
Changes in state law after Tieu’s first murder trial resulted in that case being referred to juvenile court. Tieu was eventually convicted of a lesser assault, according to his attorney, Mark Fredrick. It is not clear what sentence he received for the assault conviction.
The lawyer said that at the time of the prison escape, Tieu was “really just a kid” who had spent years in prison and fallen under the influence of “someone as charismatic as Mr. Nayeri”. After being re-arrested, Tieu essentially told authorities he just wanted to meet some girls and have a beer, the defense attorney said.
“He’s a very smart boy who has done some very stupid things,” Fredrick said. “But now he has the world in front of him.”
