According to the sheriff's office, John Garza, 37, and Arley Nemo, 43, broke out of the jail at 6 p.m. on Monday and were apprehended around 4 a.m. on Tuesday at an IHOP in Hampton, which is 10 miles away, according to WTKR. The males were able to "exploit a building design vulnerability," according to the sheriff's office, to burrow through a cell wall and get outdoors, where they scaled a containment wall.
The medium-security Newport News Prison Annex's architectural flaw is being addressed, according to the sheriff's office, by a facility management and engineering team. Because this weakness is widespread across the institution, the sheriff's office stated in a news release, "we will not address the problem further for security reasons until all flaws are located and secured." According to police, witnesses saw the two males at the IHOP and called police after police encouraged the public to keep an eye out for them, according to NPR.
More charges will now be brought against Garza and Nemo. Before the escape, they had been housed at the Newport News facility for months. Nemo was accused of credit card fraud, forgery, and possession of burglary tools, while Garza was detained on counts of contempt of court and probation violations. The men willingly surrendered, according to the police. Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said on Tuesday, "I don't think we were dealing with, like, menacing individuals. "What we had was two people who managed to get out of the correctional facility."
