April 17, 2001
(SANTA FE, N.M.) – A jail inmate’s bid for freedom was foiled when guards found him dangling on the end of a rope made of bedsheets.
Lorenzo Montana is a federal prison being housed at the Santa Fe County Jail to await trial on bank robbery charges.
Jail officials say they searched a recreation area after receiving a tip that someone was planning to break out from there. They are now trying to determine how Montana managed to remain in an exercise room hiding under a tarp after the area was supposed to be cleared. The inmate fashioned a rope from bed sheets and used a broken door handle as a grapple at one end.
Three federal prisoners who broke out of the privately operated jail on April 7 are still at large. On Saturday, guards put down an inmate riot.