Federal agencies search for Bent County escaped inmate with long, violent criminal history

BENT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Bent County Sheriff Jake Six told 13 Investigates multiple factors led to four inmates escaping his jail. As of Wednesday evening, one remains on the loose. That inmate, 46-year-old Mark Fox, was recently sentenced to 64 years in prison for a long and violent criminal history.

Seven different agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, the FBI, and the Border Patrol, are now searching for the escaped Bent County jail inmate.

The 46-year-old has a long criminal record, including a recent conviction for second-degree assault causing serious bodily injury and assault by strangulation. The 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office that prosecuted the case said the charges stemmed from a domestic violence incident.

Last month, Fox was sentenced to two consecutive 32-year prison terms for each count of assault. His sentence was inflated due to Colorado’s habitual criminal statute, which allows criminals with at least three prior convictions to be sentenced to four times the maximum potential sentence.

In this case, the maximum sentence for second-degree assault was eight years, but because Fox has at least five prior felony convictions in Jefferson, Boulder, and Denver Counties, those sentences were four times as long.

“They've determined that he's a danger, given the seriousness of the charges he was facing and the fact that he was convicted of crimes of violence,” said Jim Bullock, the 16th Judicial Assistant District Attorney.

Six said the fact Fox was facing 64 years in prison was probably why he escaped. If he's in prison for the full term of his sentence, Fox would be over 100 years old when he's freed.

The sheriff also said multiple factors led to four inmates escaping their jail and going unnoticed for more than 24 hours. One of those reasons was “negligence” by his staff.

While Otero County builds a new jail, Six said all of their inmates and staff are now at the Bent County jail. He said the staff transitioned about a month ago and there are “kinks” that need to be worked out.

He said the two staffs have different protocols, which led to a mixup during headcounts.

“It appears that neither staff, Otero or ours, did an accurate headcount,” Six said.

Six said his jail's protocol is to verbally check with inmates to make sure they are in their respective pods or cells. That didn’t happen.

He said inmates tricked the guards by rolling up items underneath their sheets to make it look like they were sleeping. For more than 24 hours, he said guards were told the four inmates were sick. Instead, they had escaped.

“The inmates escaped through a sheetrock ceiling inside of one of our pods,” Six said. “They crawled through the attic and broke out the eve of the building and went down a rope on the outside, a handmade rope.”

The infrastructure of the jail was also another problem, Six said. He told 13 Investigates there are no blueprints of the building, so he had no idea there were exterior walls not made of concrete, like most of the building.

“All the upgrades to the facility to fix this issue, to make sure there's no more sheetrock in the building, will happen and we will start getting the repairs necessary to make sure we can mitigate this issue in the future,” he said.

Six said all his jailers are currently being re-trained. He has also asked the Prowers County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Corrections to do an independent investigation into the escape and the security of the jail.

At this time, he's not sure if the four inmates received outside help. He said there was a 911 call Saturday night about people outside the jail, but he isn’t sure if it’s related.

Two of the inmates that escaped were found after they overdosed in a Las Animas hotel Tuesday. One of the inmates was able to call 911. They're both in stable condition.

The third inmate, identified as Benjamin Jeremy Valdez, was found dead in Pueblo on Monday following a possible drug overdose.

Investigators are still searching for Fox. He's described as bald, 6'3, and weighing around 210 pounds. Residents are told to keep their doors and cars locked. Anyone who sees something suspicious or Fox, who is considered dangerous, is asked to not approach him, and instead call local law enforcement right away.