Escaped convict believed to be in Tuolumne County

A prisoner serving time for robbery escaped from North Kern State Prison in Delano on Friday night and is believed to now be in Tuolumne County, where the crime was committed.

Daniel Lucas Salazar, 30, is described as Latino with short black hair, hazel eyes and weighing approximately 185 pounds. He is considered to be armed and dangerous.

He is believed to have escaped from a firehouse at the prison but the details of how he escaped remained under investigation, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Salazar got away in a state vehicle; a white 2016 Dodge Ram 1500, with an exempt license plate, number 1493191.

At around noon on Saturday Tuolumne County Sheriff's Deputies located the vehicle, unoccupied, parked on the side of Jamestown Road, which connects Jamestown to Columbia.

Deputies are searching the area for Salazar.

Salazar was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for second-degree robbery and using another person's ID. He entered North Kern State Prison in August 2016 and was scheduled to be released in March, Thornton said.

"North Kern State Prison is a reception center, meaning inmates who are newly committed are processed there," she said. "It is also the Central California transportation hub for CDCR."

But she said all California prisons have minimum security facilities and Salazar was a minimum security inmate. Many of those inmates have jobs working in the kitchen, firehouse or on the grounds of the prison.

If you see Salazar call 911, the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office at 209-533-5815 or CDCRs Special Service Unit at 559-445-5749.

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 10:41 AM with the headline "Escaped convict believed to be in Tuolumne County."