The ringleader of a Denver crime syndicate indicted earlier this month on 85 counts, including home-invasion robbery and kidnapping, escaped Tuesday morning from a minimum-security prison — even though Colorado prisons’ protocol calls for such dangerous inmates to be held in higher security lockups.
Sean Ryan Garcia, 27, hopped a fence at the Colorado Correctional Center in Golden just after 8 a.m. He was apprehended by the Denver Police Department later in the the day, Colorado Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Fairbairn said.
Fairbairn said state corrections protocol calls for inmates like Garcia to be placed in a higher security prison once correctional officers receive an arrest-warrant detainer for the new charges.
He said prison officials were notified Monday about the new charges filed against Garcia a week ago in Denver District Court. The Denver County Sheriff’s Department returned him to Golden at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday and he was scheduled to be transferred to a higher security facility later in the day. “But prior to the transport being executed, Garcia escaped by climbing over the perimeter fence.”
There had been a detainer warrant filed against Garcia, and on May 9 Denver District Attorney Beth McCann’s office issued a news release about the case after a Denver grand jury indicted Garcia and nine members of his crime syndicate.
McCann’s spokesman Ken Lane said Tuesday that Garcia was one of four leaders in a gang that burglarized more than $300,000 in property from 20 homes and stole at least 13 cars worth $240,000 across the metro area between May and September of 2017. The thieves also stole guns, jewelry, credit cards and checks. Garcia was personally indicted on 56 of the charges including two counts of robbery and kidnapping.
Members of the ring broke into homes by crawling through pet doors and smashing windows.
In one instance, suspects knocked on a door and told a homeowner they had run out of gas. They then forced their way into the home with guns and robbed two people.
Lane’s May 9 news release about the theft ring says that Garcia and others traded or sold cars and property for drugs including heroin and methamphetamine. They also posted stolen cars for sale on Facebook and used them to commit other burglaries.
Garcia, who had been in the Denver jail since Feb. 23, appeared in Denver District Court on an arrest-warrant detainer on May 14 before Denver Judge Morris Hoffman, according to court records. Hoffman set his bond at $750,000, but because he still was serving a prison sentence, he was returned to Golden.
Lane said McCann’s office does not dictate to the corrections department where it holds prisoners. “That’s not our call.”
Likewise, Jon Sarche, spokesman for the Colorado State Court Administer’s Office, said judges do not dictate the jails or prisons where indicted or criminally charged inmates are held.
“We have no way of doing this every time someone is indicted on new charges,” Sarche said. “We’re not tracking these folks once they go to DOC.”
