Last remaining OC jailbreak defendant accepts plea deal

One of the three inmates who made a brazen escape in 2016 from Orange County jail accepted a plea deal on Tuesday, April 11 — ending the long-running legal saga surrounding the jailbreak that drew national headlines.

Jonathan Tieu, now 27, admitted to taking part in the escape from the Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana and acknowledged helping kidnap a taxi driver while Tieu and his fellow escapees were on the run.

Tieu was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison — but with credit for the time served while awaiting trial he was ordered to be released.

Asked by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary S. Paer what he plans to do upon his release, Tieu — who was first arrested at age 15 — said he was going to head “home and see my mom. …

“I’m going to give her a big old kiss and a hug,” Tieu said. “It has been a long time.”

“This should be a wakeup call,” the judge told Tieu, noting that had the case gone to trial he was facing a potential life sentence. “I hope I won’t see you again.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t,” Tieu added.

Tieu was arrested in 2011 and charged with murder and attempted murder for the killing of 19-year-old Scottie Bui following a confrontation between rival Asian street gangs in Garden Grove. Tieu was not accused of having fired the gunshots that killed Bui and injured another man, and was not suspected of being a member of any of the street gangs. But he was accused of joining with friends who were gang members in taking part in the deadly confrontation.

His first trial in the murder case, in early 2015, ended with a hung jury.

In January 2016, while awaiting retrial, Tieu joined in the jail escape with Hossein Nayeri and Bac Duong. Prosecutors have said it was masterminded by Nayeri, who over the past decade became one of Orange County’s most notorious inmates and recorded the escape on a smuggled cellphone.

Over several months, the inmates cut through half-inch steel bars to access plumbing tunnels and crafted makeshift ropes from bedsheets that they deployed to get up to the roof through a vertical vent. They snuck up to the roof at least two times before the escape, using the bedsheets to reel up backpacks full of supplies, including actual ropes, that a Duong friend had brought to just outside the jail.

In the early-morning hours of Jan. 22, 2016, the three men used the ropes to rappel down the five-story jail and slipped into a Santa Ana neighborhood.

The escapees contacted Long Ma, an unlicensed taxi driver who testified that the men pulled a gun on him after he drove them to Rosemead.

Ma said he was held against his will for five days as they moved between hotels, hopscotching to San Jose. The taxi driver said tension between Nayeri and Duong exploded, in a Bay Area motel room, into a fight  — prosecutors have said it was over whether to kill Ma. The taxi driver credited Duong with saving his life, and said he persuaded Duong to drive them back to Orange County and to turn himself in.

Nayeri and Tieu were arrested a day later in San Francisco, ending a massive weeklong manhunt.

Last month, Nayeri was convicted of the jail escape but acquitted of the kidnapping.

In Nayeri’s telling, Ma was a willing accomplice who agreed to ferry the escapees away from Southern California and find them homes where they could hide from law enforcement in return for $10,000. Nayeri’s attorney alleged Ma changed his mind when he realized he could make more money turning the escapees in — the reward for their capture had swelled to $200,000 (Others split the money).

The taxi driver, during testimony in Nayeri’s trial, contradicted what he had said in previous trials and police interviews, including his description of the reported firearm and who had allegedly brandished it.

During an earlier trial, Duong was convicted of the jail escape and the kidnapping, along with the theft of a van while the three men were on the run.

Changes in state law following Tieu’s initial murder trial resulted in the case being transferred to juvenile court. Tieu was eventually convicted of a lesser assault charge, according to his attorney, Mark Fredrick.

The lawyer said that at the time of the jail escape, Tieu was “really just a kid” who had spent years in lockup and fallen under the sway of “someone as charismatic as Mr. Nayeri.” After his re-capture, Tieu essentially told authorities that had just wanted to meet some girls and drink some beer, the defense attorney said.

“He is a very bright kid who did a couple (of) very stupid things,” Fredrick said. “But he has the world in front of him now.”

Immediately after the sentencing, Judge Paer noted that the jailbreak cases were now over.

“The journey has come to an end,” he said.