Slaying suspect walks out of Texas jail

By The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A slaying suspect escaped from a county jail by assuming the identity of another inmate and was on the loose for more than six hours before authorities realized he was gone, officials said. He was still at large Monday morning.

The man who escaped, David Sauceda, 27, walked out of jail early Sunday morning when he gave the name, address, Social Security number, birth date and system ID number of his cellmate, Michael Garcia, according to the sheriff's department.

An unidentified person had posted bond for Garcia, who is in jail on a felony auto theft charge. Tafolla said officers went to retrieve Garcia, but when they called Garcia's name, Sauceda stepped forward and repeated his cellmate's personal information.

Authorities from San Antonio south to the Mexican border were searching for Sauceda, who is considered armed and dangerous.

''He had it down pat,'' Bexar County Sheriff Roland Tafolla said Sunday night.

Tafolla said Sauceda and Garcia are members of the Mexican Mafia.

Sauceda and his brother, Jesse Sauceda, were charged in the November 2006 killing of a San Antonio man, and with robbing a 59-year-old woman after binding her with duct tape.

Tafolla said the department will review its jail release procedures to figure out what went wrong. ''We made an error,'' he said.