Convicted murderer reveals how he escaped from Las Vegas-area prison
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A report the 8 News Now Investigators obtained details how a convicted murderer escaped from a Las Vegas-area prison, how he made it dozens of miles away, and who helped him.
Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, 43, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court on Tuesday on a felony charge of escape by a prisoner.
The prison is approximately 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas near the rural community of Indian Springs.
The Office of the Inspector General determined Duarte-Herrera escaped from Southern Desert Correctional Center by breaking part of a window, climbing through it, and then scaling razor wire fences, according to the arrest report obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators.
The report also confirmed what the 8 News Now Investigators first reported: Duarte-Herrera escaped on a Friday night and prison staff did not report his escape until the following Tuesday morning.
Sources told the 8 News Now Investigators that Duarte-Herrera chipped away at an area of the window with battery acid.
Duarte-Herrera had an illegal cell phone inside the prison and made several calls before his escape, according to the report.
Duarte-Herrera told investigators that he hid behind a pony wall for five hours after returning from dinner at the chow hall, jumped three fences — one without razor wire and two with razor wire — and then walked and ran to Las Vegas, the report stated.
He also said that he tried to make contact with people whom he knew at various homes but was unsuccessful, a bystander gave him a bus ticket, and he rested near a bridge in the area of Nellis Boulevard and Bonanza Road, according to the report.
The report also referred to additional stops after his escape.
“He eventually visited his sister-in-law’s residence in the evening of Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, where she provided him cash (not knowing he had escaped, naively believing Duarte had been let out of prison) and dropped him back in the area of Bonanza and Nellis,” the report stated. “He then used that money to buy clothes from Goodwill, a counterfeit identification card from the Swap Meet and his bus ticket to Tijuana, Mexico. His goal was to get back to Nicaragua to be with his father, brothers and sisters.”
Multiple agencies searched for Duarte-Herrera for two days.
An employee at Las Vegas Shuttles called police after she recognized him from a wanted flier. He had bought a ticket to Tijuana, according to the report.
Investigators reported finding no information that prison staff or any citizens outside the prison assisted Duarte-Herrera with the escape.
Duarte-Herrera and Omar Rueda-Denvers were convicted in 2009 for killing Dorantes Antonio, who died when a bomb, hidden in a coffee cup, exploded. The incident happened at a parking garage at the Luxor hotel in 2007.
Dorantes Antonio was Rueda-Denvers’s ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
In October 2006, Duarte-Herrera planted a bomb that exploded in a parking lot at a Home Depot near Charleston and Lamb boulevards, police said. Investigators found components similar to both devices at Duarte-Herrera’s residence, they said.
Duarte-Herreraw as already serving a sentence for life without the possibility of parole. The plea deal is expected to add an additional sentence of up to two years. He was expected to appear in Clark County District Court on Thursday, according to court records.
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