Saga of prison escapee a black eye for Nevada Department of Corrections

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Editor's note: Porfirio Herrera-Duarte was found by authorities Wednesday night and returned to custody after this editorial was written.

Anyone who works in law enforcement or watches crime-themed film or television knows that the first 48 hours of the search for a missing person are critical. Beyond that time, memories fade, evidence deteriorates or disappears, and the number of leads rapidly drops off. This is especially true when searching for people who don’t want to be found, such as a runaway teen or an escaped convict.

Given these realities, we cannot understand how corrections officers went nearly 90 hours without noticing that a convicted murderer and bomb-maker named Porfirio Duarte-Herrera escaped from Southern Desert Correctional Center (SDCC) in Indian Springs last Friday.

SDCC is a medium-security facility that, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections, is appropriate for inmates who would be an escape risk if they were not inside a secure institution but who are expected to behave without constant, direct supervision.

The details are still coming in, but Nevada Department of Corrections Officials issued a press release Tuesday morning about the escape of Duarte-Herrera from SDCC.

While we can’t say with certainty whether the initial press release was intended to be misleading, the release did fail to mention a very important detail: the fact that authorities believed Duarte-Herrera escaped Friday. It’s unclear why it took nearly four days for Duarte-Herrera’s absence to be noticed, though The New York Post reported that he may have used a cardboard dummy in his cell to fool corrections officers. What is clear is that the public and local law enforcement spent the entire weekend unaware of the danger of a convicted murderer and bomb-maker in our midst.

Duarte-Herrera was a relatively high-profile prisoner serving a life sentence for multiple car bombings, including one on the roof of the parking garage at the Luxor. At the time of the Luxor attack, the bombing dramatically escalated tensions in Las Vegas over fears of the terrorist plot targeting the Strip.

It was later revealed that the attack was little more than a revenge plot targeting the ex-girlfriend of Duarte-Herrera’s accomplice and her new boyfriend.

For such a violent and high-profile offender to go missing for so long without being noticed points to prison officials who were either grossly incompetent, involved in the escape plot, or both. Perhaps the cardboard mannequin wasn’t the only dummy in the facility.

No matter the answer, the justice system failed repeatedly, and the people of Las Vegas and the people of Nevada deserve better.

It failed when a convicted murderer who risked the lives of dozens of people by setting off a bomb in a Strip parking garage was classified as a medium-security inmate.

It failed when that inmate escaped, unknown and unnoticed for so many days that he could have completely changed his appearance and quite literally been anywhere in the world by now.

And it failed when corrections officials, even upon learning of the escape, misled the public about the timeline and thus the nature of the threat to our communities.

All three failures need to be corrected so Nevadans can feel safe and secure in the knowledge that bomb-making murderers are being kept safely behind bars and under supervision.

To his credit, Gov. Steve Sisolak has already ordered Department of Corrections to “conduct and complete a thorough investigation into this event as quickly as possible.” He added, “This kind of security lapse cannot be permitted and those responsible will be held accountable.”

Given the magnitude of the department’s failure in this situation, an internal investigation must be watched closely to ensure the governor gets the answers we all deserve. If not, Sisolak should call for an independent investigation to ensure the officials responsible for such a gross error are held accountable.