Jail escapee sentenced

Staff report

A 21-year-old Portales man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday for escaping from the Roosevelt County Detention Center and other numerous felony charges, according to a press release from the Ninth Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Stephen Phillips was one of two men who escaped from the county jail in June of 2013, crawling from a hole they created with a broken-off metal bed leg in the jail’s roof.

link Portales News-Tribune: File photo

The hole torn in the roof by Stephen Phillips and Ruben Lozano at the Roosevelt County Detention Center.

Phillips was apprehended and caught shortly after the escape, not getting too far from the jail as he injured his leg when he jumped from the jail’s roof.

Public defender Chris Christensen who represents Phillips was not immediately available for comment Wednesday evening.

Court records showed that the June 2013 incident was not his first escape attempt from the detention center. Phillips attempted to escape in December 2012.