Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Missing county inmate caught

An escaped inmate from the Curry County Adult Detention Center was arrested Thursday without incident in Dimmitt, Texas, according to Dimmitt police.

Guadalupe Rodriguez, 29, was arrested by local police about 8:30 a.m. (CST) at a Dimmitt hotel, according to police.

“We knocked on the door and that’s when we got him. It was a pretty easy arrest,” said Dimmitt Assistant Police Chief Santos Perez Jr.

Rodriguez was wearing street clothes and was unarmed. He had been missing from the Curry County jail since Saturday when he slipped out a back door at the detention center, court documents show.

“He was pretty quiet about everything. He didn’t say a whole lot,” Perez said.

Perez said Rodriguez is being housed at Castro County’s jail without bail.

Rodriguez was serving a 364-day sentence at the Curry County Detention Center on multiple non-violent felonies, mostly involving stolen property. He was scheduled to serve a four-year state prison sentence after satisfying his local sentence.

Perez said a man called police Thursday morning and told them he had spoken with Rodriguez on Wednesday night at a Dimmitt convenience store. He said he recognized Rodriguez as an escaped inmate from his photo on the news.

Police began checking local hotels in the town of approximately 4,500 people about an hour north of Muleshoe.

A hotel owner told police Rodriguez had rented a room from her Tuesday. She directed Perez and officer Salvador Rivera to the room he was staying in.

Also arrested Thursday were two of Rodriguez’s family members, his cousin Elizabeth Villareal, 40, and her husband, Domingo Villareal, 44, according to 9th Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler.

They are charged with harboring or aiding a felon and assisting an escape from prison. Chandler said there is no indication they had prior knowledge of escape plans but found out after Rodriguez escaped.

They are being held on $15,000 bonds, jail officials said.

Chandler said the Villareals gave Rodriguez a ride out of Clovis and rented the hotel room in Dimmitt under a fictitious name for him.

Rodriguez faces a possible sentence of up to nine years and six months for the escape if he is determined to be a habitual offender, Chandler said.

 
 
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