How did a murder suspect escape a Roseville hospital? Placer grand jury report sheds new light

A Placer County grand jury report on the escape of a high-profile murder suspect revealed a sheriff’s deputy tasked with watching the inmate left the Roseville hospital room 14 times, leaving him unattended for a total of 27 minutes before the man accused of killing a hostage and wounding two others slipped away.

On Thursday, the grand jury released its report on the escape of Eric James Abril, who defeated his restraints, jumped out of his bed and fled the hospital when the deputy wasn’t looking. His escape led to a 33-hour manhunt that cost the Sheriff’s Office more than $100,000 to capture Abril.

Abril, 36, is accused of killing a hostage and wounding two other people in an April 6, 2023, police standoff at Mahany Park in Roseville. On July 9, Placer County sheriff’s officials announced Abril had escaped while receiving treatment at Sutter Roseville Medical Center.

The grand jury said inadequate training of Placer County’s Sheriff’s Office uniformed staff and the failure of the policies, procedures, and protocols contributed to Abril’s escape.

Sheriff’s officials on Thursday said the deputy assigned to watch Abril when he escaped continues to work for the Sheriff’s Office.

“We appreciate the grand jury serving as another set of eyes looking at this situation,” sheriff’s said Thursday in a written statement sent to The Sacramento Bee. “Prior to their report’s completion we conducted our own internal investigation and brought in an outside expert to complete an external investigation. We took swift action, implementing changes within weeks. Following our internal and the independent investigation, we began implementing changes, including the recommendations outlined in the grand jury report.”

The grand jury says it was told in several interviews the Sheriff’s Office provides no formal training for deputies to transport an inmate to a hospital, and it offers no training for deputies to guard and observe a hospitalized inmate.

“The grand jury determined during their investigation of the escape, there was willful misconduct and negligence,” according to the 14-page report on Abril’s escape. “The grand jury is not alleging that there was intended willful corrupt misconduct by any individual.”

In the April 2023 incident, Police officials have said Abril shot a California Highway Patrol officer at the park before he took two hostages and shot them both during the standoff with law enforcement. James MacEgan of Roseville and his wife, Patricia MacEgan, were taken hostage at the park. James MacEgan, 72, died from his injuries. His wife and the CHP officer were wounded by gunfire.

Abril’s case that includes criminal charges in the Mahany Park shooting and his reported escape is still pending in Placer Superior Court. A preliminary hearing for the court to determine whether there’s enough evidence for Abril to stand trial remains scheduled to begin July 15.

Why Abril was sent to the hospital

Abril had several seizure-like episodes in the jail during the first 90 days of incarceration after his arrest, according to the grand jury report. On July 6, 2023, Abril was taken to the Roseville hospital for observation for potential seizure activity.

While at the hospital, Abril was guarded in a single-bed hospital room. The inmate accused of murder was wearing a belly chain that was not attached to the bed, the grand jury learned. Abril was required to have at least one hand always handcuffed to the frame of the bed.

The sheriff’s deputy assigned to guard Abril when he escaped had been “the sole attending deputy in charge of guarding Abril” over the course of eight hours, according to the grand jury report. That deputy had stepped out of Abril’s hospital room for more than a total of 27 minutes, stepping out 12 times to “make phone calls, pace the halls, and chat with nurses and other patients.”

When the deputy left the hospital room a 13th time, Abril freed one of his hands, the grand jury said. When the deputy stepped out a 14th time — to use the restroom — Abril made his escape out of the hospital. The Sheriff’s Office has said Abril escaped while the deputy took a bathroom break.

The grand jury learned that the deputy — at the time of Abril’s 3 a.m. July 9 escape — went into the hospital hallway and left behind his protective vest unattended near Abril. The deputy left behind his vest, which has pockets to carry law enforcement equipment and his radio, magazines with live ammunition for his handgun, impact weapon, an attached bodyworn camera, his badge and a phone.

Abril’s escape was captured by a video camera connected to an electroencephalogram (EEG machine) near his hospital bed, Placer County Deputy District Attorney David Tellman wrote in court documents filed in September 2023. Tellman is prosecuting Abril.

The prosecutor said the video shows Abril was able to remove his wrist from the handcuff, before he waited until the sheriff’s deputy walked to where there was no line of sight between Abril and the deputy. Abril then “sprung out of bed” and ran out of his hospital room, fleeing down the hallway to a stairwell that led the inmate outside, Tellman said.

Authorities frantically searched for the wanted escapee, searching Abril’s mother’s home not far from the Mahany Park shooting scene, following up on leads after Abril was spotted in nearby Rocklin and combing through dry grass in large fields as SWAT teams in tactical teams closed off nearby roads and urged residents to stay indoors.

The escaped inmate managed to evade authorities the entire day as the search continued overnight. Other law enforcement agencies from the region assisted the Sheriff’s Office in their manhunt. The search ended the following afternoon, when a resident in his back yard spotted Abril in a creek behind 5800 block of Zion Court in Rocklin. He was taken into custody without further incident.

The sheriff’s command staff told the grand jury that the direct cost to the Sheriff’s Office was over $109,000 for the manhunt to capture Abril, according to the report.

Security for Abril was downgraded

When he was initially arrested shortly after the Mahany park shooting, Abril was listed in the highest inmate classification level, which required a higher level of security than usual. This classification level typically requires a two-officer escort for inmate movement inside the jail and for transportation outside the jail.

The grand jury learned that 33 days after Abril was booked at the jail — for reasons within the discretion of the Sheriff’s Office — Abril’s classification was downgraded to a one-officer escort and transportation security status. The security downgrade was primarily due to the inmate not having had any notable disciplinary issues while incarcerated.

This classification was never meant for use outside the jail, the grand jury said, and strict adherence in security classification has now led to the practice of sheriff’s officials applying this internal classification to transporting inmates outside of the jail, including Abril’s July visit to the hospital.

During interviews, the grand jury was told inmate security classification is a routine task, and “there was no policy for classification because each circumstance and inmate were different,” according to the report. The grand jury said the “classification decision tree” used by sheriff’s officials at the time of the escape revealed the seriousness of the criminal charges — as it could relate to an inmate’s motivation to attempt an escape — did not factor in the decision to transport Abril to the hospital with only one deputy to stand guard and watch the inmate.

“Since the Mahany Park incident was exceptionally notorious for its violence, public nature and the rash of media coverage it generated, it was obvious to the public that Abril faced the possibility of being convicted for crimes which could result in several life sentences in prison,” according to the grand jury report.

An investigation into the escape led by former Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones produced an 18-page report the Sheriff’s Office released in September. Jones’ report detailed staffing shortages and policy failures that may have contributed to Abril’s escape.

In response to Jones’ report, the Sheriff’s Office said in September that it already changed policy so that “two or more deputies are assigned to every emergency medical escort and/or hospitalization of an inmate.”

The grand jury’s report recommended that the Sheriff’s Office develop and begin formal training by Jan. 1 for deputies on how to transport and monitor inmates outside of the jail. The training should include hands-on practical training and be provided to the deputy before they’re assigned to transport an inmate out of the jail.

The grand jury also recommended that the Sheriff’s Office included factors, such as criminal charges, potential prison sentence and pending out-of-county criminal charges, in determining an inmate’s security status. And the grand jury recommended that sheriff’s command staff approve any reclassification of an inmate charged with an aggravated felonies. The grand jury recommended these policy changes be implemented by Oct. 1.

The Sheriff’s Office is legally required to respond to the grand jury’s recommendations by Sept. 3.

Preventing escapes is an essential duty of the Sheriff’s Office, and it’s crucial to have safe and common-sense policies, procedures and protocols in place, the grand jury said. It’s just as crucial that all deputies be properly trained to transport and monitor inmates outside of the jail, the grand jury said, and that should be a vital part of every deputy’s training.

“The attending deputy’s failure to maintain visual contact of the inmate, to exercise common sense and to conform to written policy and procedures substantially contributed to the escape of the inmate and represented a significant failure to meet one of the essential duties expected of a deputy sheriff,” the grand jury said in its report.