SAN ANTONIO — The sheriff says two men escaped their Bexar County Jail cell Sunday and killed another inmate. Authorities say the victim and two suspects are active members of the Texas Mexican Mafia.
Now, Sheriff Javier Salazar says jailers are on high alert and a SWAT team is on standby in case inmates want payback for the murder behind bars.
"We're waiting for retaliation," Salazar said. "We're waiting for the other shoe to drop."
Deputies Sunday charged Ernesto Tavera, 50, and Brandon Lerma, 28, with murder. $500,000 was added to each of their existing bonds.
The sheriff says the attack began shortly after the victim, 40-year-old Vincent Garcia, told a unit officer he was uncomfortable living in his block.
During the conversation, the sheriff says Tavera and Lerma broke out of their cells and stabbed Garcia with a sharp object.
The assault ended when a unit officer initiated an emergency code and opened a door for the victim to escape through. EMTs treated the stab wounds while deputies took the suspects into custody without incident, the sheriff said.
The victim died in the jail infirmary at 7:07 a.m.
"We're doing everything we can to examine what went wrong," Salazar said. "Clearly, these two suspects should not have been able to breach that door."
Salazar called shoddy locks a "daily concern" for jailers, adding that instructions for disabling cell doors are easily found on YouTube.
"It's really not rocket science," Salazar said, adding that he doesn't know if there's enough money in the county budget to fund upgrades.
The three men lived in a wing where the sheriff's office holds suspected gang members. Salazar said jails segregate inmates this way to prevent gangsters from recruiting or threatening other inmates.
"Why don't we spread them out? Well, because then basically you're spreading the cancer at that point throughout the facility," Salazar said.
The segregation policy is considered a best-practice by the National Institute of Justice. Suspected gang members and inmates accused of violent crimes also wear red jumpsuits.
Salazar says these high-risk inmates may be subject to more frequent searches, but some can evade extra scrutiny by disassociating from their gang.
"They go from being a current member to an ex-member, just like that," Salazar said, snapping his fingers. "Then they go right back to being a gang member when it becomes convenient for them."
Still, some ex-gang members do not have to wear red jumpsuits, Salazar said. The sheriff's office relies on reconnaissance and intelligence to verify the inmates' claims and affiliations.
"These criminal organizations and the people that belong to them are master manipulators," he added.
Segregating inmates who are members of organized crime rings is common, but the policy concentrates inmates suspected of violent crimes to a few areas of the jail.
Only one deputy was stationed nearby when Sunday's attack occurred. The cadet in charge of monitoring the unit's doors was a temporary staffer in training.
Salazar said he's taken steps to ensure more jailers are stationed in high-risk wings.
"Some of these folks just bought themselves a little bit higher security rating now," he added.
The sheriff's office says there are currently around 400 suspected members of the Texas Mexican Mafia or an affiliated organization at the Bexar County Adult Detention Center.
The Texas Rangers will handle the death investigation, and BCSO Internal Affairs and the Public Integrity Unit are conducting their own investigations. The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has been notified.
This is a developing story.