CAMARILLO : CYA Inmates Were 7th, 8th to Escape

Two California Youth Authority inmates who walked away from their work crew on Tuesday and were recaptured a mile away were the seventh and eighth wards to escape this year from the Camarillo detention facility.

The six other inmates remain at large, including 21-year-old Ernest Ricks, who on Nov. 26 walked away from a brush-clearing crew in Malibu. Four felons, including two murderers, escaped from the detention center in May when they cut a hole in a security fence and fled.

Four hours after their escape in Oak Park on Tuesday, Miguel Rizo and Tony Rivera, both 18, were seen walking along railroad tracks not far from Oak Park, said CYA spokeswoman Monica Frazier. The Los Angeles teen-agers had been part of two crews trimming trees and cutting brush under the supervision of the California Department of Forestry, Frazier said.

Neither ward who escaped Tuesday was considered a high risk for escape, one of the criteria each met when they entered the CYA public service and fire camp in October, she said.

Rivera, who was convicted of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon, had a parole consideration hearing scheduled for next April. A hearing for Rizo, who was serving a term for assault with a deadly weapon, was scheduled for February, 1993.

Frazier credited the assistance of a canine unit from the Sheriff’s Department Tuesday with the quick apprehension of the men in a brushy area. The two were injured by bites from one of the sheriff’s dogs and were treated at the Ventura County Medical Center.

Later, the pair were taken to Ventura County Jail, where they were booked on suspicion of escape.