Last of 7 Escapees Has Long Crime Career

A 41-year-old Reseda man, the last of seven jail escapees still at large Friday, has been convicted seven times in 25 years for Los Angeles-area sex offenses, burglary, robbery and attempted escape and has spent less than three years of his adult life as a free man, authorities said.

Terrence Lee Liddell has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1959, when he was sent to the California Youth Authority on a burglary conviction, according to court documents and law enforcement and state prison officials.

Liddell and six other inmates escaped Wednesday night from a maximum-security building at the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic, which houses about 4,000 prisoners in dormitories of varying security levels, depending on the seriousness of the offenses.

The other six escapees, including a man convicted of two murders and charged in a third, were recaptured within 24 hours of the jail break.

The state Department of Corrections declared Liddell a mentally disordered sex offender in 1966, after his 1960, 1963 and 1966 convictions on rape and attempted rape charges, court documents show.

However, that was only the beginning of Liddell’s time behind bars, which included stays at the state’s two maximum-security facilities, Folsom and San Quentin prisons.

During the last 25 years, Liddell’s longest period out of jail was a one-year stint between Nov. 1, 1975, and Oct. 28, 1976, according to prison records. He was convicted of attempted escape in 1967; robbery, burglary, rape and oral copulation in 1977, and burglary in 1982.

Each time he was freed on parole, Liddell commited another crime, usually within three months of his release, records show.

Liddell was to have been arraigned Friday in Van Nuys Municipal Court on his November arrest on burglary and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit rape charges. The arrest came only six months after his release from the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, where he was serving time for a previous parole violation, Corrections Department spokesman Robert Gore said.

Sheriff’s detectives said they believe Liddell is still in the Los Angeles area and should be considered dangerous.

Investigators said they were interviewing his relatives and friends in an effort to determine his whereabouts. However, that phase of the investigation has been hampered, detectives said, because Liddell has spent so little time as a free man, that he has few known acquaintances.

A portrait of an intelligent man began to emerge from a review of court records and other documents and statements from an acquaintance of Liddell.

After committing a series of sex crimes, burglaries and robberies in 1976, he eluded capture for a time by monitoring police radio calls with a scanner and an ear plug, court documents show. One person familiar with the case described Liddell as an “electronics genius.”

Wrote Articles

In 1973 and 1975, Liddell wrote two well-crafted articles for TV Guide magazine on the television viewing habits of state prison inmates, quoting prisoners on the authenticity of crime dramas.

Liddell was not the only participant in Wednesday’s mass escape with a long history of arrests for violent offenses.

Arvey B. Carroll, 26, has a record dating back to 1970, investigators said. In 1976, Carroll was convicted of murdering a 51-year-old woman teacher in a classroom at the California Youth Authority school in Paso Robles, where he was serving time for aggravated assault.

Paroled in July, 1982, Carroll was arrested the next month on two more murder charges in the Wilshire area, including the slaying of his father, Los Angeles police said.

Carroll was convicted of his father’s murder, and was awaiting an appeal at the time of his escape. The second murder charge resulted in a hung jury, Wilshire Division detectives said.

Jail Overcrowded

Chief James Painter, who is in charge of the Sheriff’s Department Custody Division, said Liddell and Carroll were housed at the honor rancho because the Men’s Central Jail downtown is overcrowded.

Painter said security at the honor rancho was being bolstered at the time of the jail break and the construction activity may have contributed to the escape.

The chief said the inmates apparently used a saw left behind by a workman to cut loose a section of pipe from a wall rail in their second-story room and used the pipe to force open a steel screen on a window. They tied their bed sheets and blankets together to lower themselves to the ground, then scaled a 20-foot-high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

An additional steel screening device was to have been added to the window next week, Painter said.

“Had they waited a week, it would have had more security,” he said.

Caught at Terminal

Carroll was recaptured Thursday evening at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in downtown Los Angeles. He had a ticket to San Francisco in his possession.

Raymond Beavers, 18, who had been awaiting trial on armed robbery charges, was apprehended Thursday afternoon in Bouquet Canyon.

The four other escapees were recaptured early Thursday morning, within two miles of the honor rancho, which is situated near Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park and Interstate 5.

Sheriff’s deputies identified the four men as Thomas Bishop, 19, who was being held on a burglary charge; David O’Brien, 34, a robbery suspect; Mark Lowry, 23, charged with parole violation, and Michael Marth, 26, charged with burglary.

Times staff writers Sandy Banks, Stephen Bloom, Stephanie Chavez, Nieson Himmel and David Wharton contributed to this article