El Toro : Inmate Arrested After Fleeing ‘Honor Farm’

An inmate convicted of petty theft and resisting arrest escaped Thursday night from a county minimum-security facility here but was arrested four hours later, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Friday.

Dennis Wayne McCrae, 26, was discovered missing about 8 p.m. from the James A. Musick compound, one of three county minimum-security facilities that the Sheriff’s Department calls “honor farms.”

Lt. Robert Rivas said supervisors heard some noise at the back of the compound, “like a chain-link fence moving,” but a search of the area found nothing. McCrae was discovered missing during an inmate count a short time later, Rivas said.

Residents in a neighborhood adjacent to the Musick facility became concerned when they heard the Sheriff’s Department helicopter circling overhead, Rivas said. So deputies went door-to-door to search for McCrae and explain that an inmate had walked away from the facility.

At 11:55 p.m., deputies arrested McCrae in La Mirada at an undisclosed address, Rivas said. He said McCrae had hitchhiked there and arrived only 10 minutes before deputies.

McCrae, who was serving a 10-week sentence, was scheduled to be released Nov. 26. He was booked into the main jail in downtown Santa Ana, Rivas said.