Convicted bomb maker Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, who was serving a life sentence for the deadly 2007 Luxor bombing in Las Vegas, has escaped from a Nevada state prison. The 42-year-old, as per an official statement, was determined missing from Southern Desert Correctional Center outside Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday.
Gov. Steve Sisolak revealed that the prisoner has been missing since early in the weekend. He ordered the Nevada Department of Corrections to conduct a thorough investigation into the escape as quickly as possible. Sisolak said this kind of security lapse cannot be permitted. "Those responsible will be held accountable," he warned.
Who is Porfirio Duarte-Herrera?
Porfirio Duarte-Herrera was a medium-security inmate, as per a statement from the Nevada Department of Corrections. He is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and 135 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair.
Records show that Duarte-Herrera is an undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2007 bombing in the parking garage of the Luxor Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. A 27-year-old Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio was killed in the bombing.
Prosecutors had said that Duarte-Herrera orchestrated the incident to harm his ex-girlfriend Caren Chali and her lover Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio. Chali was not harmed but Antonio was killed when he picked up the bomb atop his car after his shift at the Luxor. This incident had stoked fears of a possible terrorist attack on the Strip.
Duarte-Herrera carried out the bombing with the help of a friend Omar Rueda-Denvers. The duo was found guilty in 2010 of one count each of murder with use of a deadly weapon, and attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon. They were spared the death penalty as prosecutors established that jealousy was the motive for the attack.
Rueda-Denvers, from Guatemala, is serving a life sentence at a different Nevada prison.
