The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is citing clerical errors in the mistaken release from jail of inmates in two separate incidents.
One of the two non-violent men was returned to custody and the other remained at large Tuesday, officials said.
The search continues for Cristian Barrionuevo, 27, who was mistakingly set free March 28 after being booked in jail on suspicion of shoplifting.
Barrionuevo appeared in court for an initial appearance, and his bond was set at $500, court records show.
The judge noted there was a state Department of Corrections hold for Barrionuevo based on a previous case.
A hold prevents an individual from being released from custody, even if they might otherwise be eligible for it.
Two non-violent inmates were released by mistake in separate incidents at the Pima County jail. One of the men is still at large.
“He definitely should have stayed in custody,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said of Barrionuevo’s release.
A document was misread, which ended up with Barrionuevo being released, instead of being placed under the supervision of his parole officers. Nanos said it was within five minutes that the error was discovered.
Barrionuevo had not yet been located as of Tuesday. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call 911.
Just before midnight the previous day, 24-year-old Dimitri Lopez was able to walk out of the jail in a similar fashion. Lopez appeared in front of a judge on charges of theft of means of transportation, burglary, possession of a dangerous drug and possession of drug paraphernalia.
When Lopez arrived at the jail’s pretrial window for processing, he was mistakingly authorized for release.
Nanos said Lopez had the same name as another individual at the jail, and was mistakenly released.
The error was recognized within 15 minutes and efforts to locate Lopez began immediately, deputies said.
Lopez was located about 2:30 a.m. March 30. He was promptly booked back into jail and remains in custody.
He has since been charged with escape in the second degree. His bond is set at $75,000.
“We are always looking at our process to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it,” Nanos said. “We handle between 30-40,000 arrests a year. We get three or four we make a mistake on. We are human, and people make mistakes.”
