By Kim Minugh and Bill Lindelof
kminugh@sacbee.com
Folsom police have found the inmate who escaped from a Folsom prison last night and allegedly tried to steal a citizen's vehicle.
Prisoner Marco Cabrera, convicted of assault with a firearm, turned up missing about 9 p.m. Sunday during a head count at the minimum support facility at California State Prison-Sacramento.
Officers arrested him about 6: 30 p.m. today after residents of a rural Folsom home followed the barking of their dogs and found the inmate stuck in the bed of their pickup truck, said police spokesman Sgt. Jason Browning.
Cabrera was found with "minor injuries from blackberry bushes," Browning said.
The inmate faces charges of robbery and auto theft in connection with crimes he allegedly committed while on the lam, Browning said. He will be returned to the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which will charge him in connection with his escape, Browning said.
Folsom police said that even before they were informed of Cabrera's escape, they got an emergency call at 9:19 p.m. Sunday reporting that someone, apparently Cabrera, had taken a vehicle in the 100 block of Esplanade Circle.
Esplanade Circle is in the Empire Ranch neighborhood not far from the prison. Dispatchers were told that the thief's escape in the stolen vehicle was blocked by neighbors, causing the vehicle to crash into a water main.
The thief then got out of the vehicle and fled into a nearby wetlands area. A perimeter was established, but after two hours of combing the area, the search in the nature area was called off.
Folsom police said that 20 minutes after the initial report of the vehicle theft, they were told by prison officials of Cabrera's escape from the minimum support facility, which is about three miles from Empire Ranch.
Police are convinced that Cabrera is the man who tried to take the vehicle.
The inmate was received from Tulare County last year to serve a 5-year sentence for assault with a firearm, transport/selling of marijuana, injury to a spouse, possession of an assault weapon, possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and possession of ammunition by an ex-felon.
CSP-Sacramento, sometimes called new Folsom Prison, houses about 2,800 imates.
Top photo: Cabrera is taken into custody by Folsom police. Photo courtesy of Folsom police.
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