A manhunt is on for an escaped inmate who was on trial on charges of sexually assaulting a minor. According to Lt. Brian Lee, Maricopa County Sheriff’s spokesman, Adrian Cruz, 28, was dressed in civilian clothes and walked out the front door of Maricopa County Superior Court, 101 W. Jefferson St. in downtown Phoenix.
Lee said Cruz was in civilian clothes rather than in jail stripes because he was on trial.
He was last seen in courthouse surveillance at 1 p.m. leaving the building during the lunch recess, a time when the inmates on trial are locked in holding cells.
“When the deputy came back he was gone,” Lee said.
Cruz is described as 5 feet, 5 inches and 170 pounds.
He was wearing a white dress shirt, leather jacket and dark gray pants with black pinstripes.
Lee said investigators are still trying to determine how he escaped.
The escape led to three courthouses filled with hundreds of employees to be evacuated for a few hours.
