Albuquerque Journal
CARLSBAD, N.M. — Two New Mexico inmates involved in a statewide manhunt in March that ended in Albuquerque pleaded not guilty Monday at their arraignment on charges of escaping from the back of a prison van earlier this year.
Felons Lionel Clah and Joseph Cruz both entered the pleas in state District Court in Carlsbad, the District Attorney’s Office said. It was not immediately clear when they will stand trial on the charges.
Authorities say the two bolted from a prison van along a desert highway near Artesia and hitched a ride more than 200 miles north to Albuquerque from a man who State Police say helped free them from their shackles.
Officers did not realize the two inmates had escaped until hours later when the van arrived at a Las Cruces prison.
A manhunt led to the separate arrests of Cruz and Clah days later in Albuquerque.
Clah, who shot at a police officer near Farmington in 2007, already is serving a 30-year sentence.
Cruz had been sentenced to life in prison on a first-degree murder conviction.
State Police have said Cruz and Clah broke out of the prison van after picking the locks on their handcuffs with a wire. They made a break for it near the Artesia gas station after they managed to unlock the vehicle’s doors.
Since the escape, officials have removed power locks and door handles from the interior rear area of about a dozen Corrections Department vans, according to the documents obtained by the AP in August.
Since March, corrections officials also have spent $700,000 on five new vans, two buses, one medical transport unit and other equipment.