Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The second of two California inmates who made a brazen courthouse getaway was caught in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb, authorities said Sunday.
The Santa Clara County sheriff’s office posted on social media that U.S. marshals arrested John Bivins in San Leandro about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco. The sheriff’s office did not provide further details and a department spokesman did not immediately respond to an email for comment.
Bivins, 47, and Tramel McClough, 46, escaped from a deputy Nov. 6 escorting them through a hallway outside a Silicon Valley courtroom for a hearing. The men ran through an emergency exit, down stairs and outside to a waiting car before abandoning the vehicle for a U-Haul moving van and fleeing the Palo Alto courthouse.
Highway patrol officers in Stockton caught McClough last week when the men were spotted driving. McClough ditched the car and ran into a Walmart, where he was caught. But Bivins took the wheel and escaped.
Officials said the men were held without bail after robbing a Verizon store of $64,000 in merchandise in February.
The escape was the latest setback for the sheriff’s department. Four inmates escaped from the county’s main jail last year by cutting through metal bars and rappelling with a rope made of clothing and sheets.