Escaped prisoner found living in Sonora homeless encampment

Three weeks after escaping from a prison in Kern County, an inmate was found living in a homeless encampment in Sonora.

Daniel Lucas Salazar, 30, escaped from a fire house at the North Kern State Prison in Delano on Nov 3.

He stole a prison pickup, which was found unoccupied a day later on Jamestown Road between Jamestown and Columbia. Deputies searched the area for Salazar but could not locate him.

A week later a $500 reward was offered for information leading to Salazar's arrest.

On Friday afternoon, agents from California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation's Special Service Unit (SSU) Fresno, with the assistance of SSU Bay Area, found Salazar in a tent at a homeless encampment near the Lowe's in Sonora on Highway 108. He was taken into custody without incident and transported to Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown.

No information was available about how Salazar was located or if anyone received the $500 reward.

The minimum-security inmate was serving a three-year, eight-month sentence for second-degree robbery and using another person's ID in Tuolumne County.

He was scheduled to be released in March but his case related to the escape will be referred to the District Attorney's Office for consideration of escape charges.

Since 1977, 99 percent of all offenders who have left an adult institution, camp or community-based program without permission have been apprehended, according to the CDCR.

This story was originally published November 24, 2017 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Escaped prisoner found living in Sonora homeless encampment."