LAKEWOOD, Colo. – The pair of sex offenders who escaped from a youth detention facility in Golden Monday morning were caught a day-and-a-half later in Lakewood.
Despite law enforcement believing they were “long gone from Golden” a day prior, the two teenagers were spotted about five miles away from the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center and were taken into custody after a brief police chase Tuesday afternoon.
Javier Madera-Nunez, 19, and 17-year old Emilio Dominguez, both sex offenders with gang affiliations who were roommates at the facility, were said to have hung sheets from their window to escape in the hours after a 2:15 a.m. headcount.
Golden police said officers with Denver police and the Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force saw the two teenagers in a vehicle near 6th Avenue and Simms Street in northwestern Lakewood at 3:25 p.m. Tuesday.
With Dominguez behind the wheel, the fugitives led those officers into Golden, where they then led Golden police on a short chase before crashing near the intersection of Interstate 70 and US 40. The teens tried to run from officers on foot, but were captured.
Police say a “juvenile female” was also taken into custody after the chase.
Because he’s 19 years old and thus an adult, Madera would be booked into the Jefferson County Jail on criminal mischief and escape charges, police said. Dominguez, 17, would be sent to Mount View Youth Services on a felony eluding charge, as well as reckless driving, criminal mischief and escape counts.
The Monday escape was the latest in a series of incidents involving inmates at the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center in recent weeks.
On May 1, a riot broke out at the facility, injuring 10 staff members and four inmates. Three weeks earlier, a 15-year-old escaped while being transported from the facility to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get some identification cards. He was caught a day later in Littleton.
Later in April, Golden police received word of another credible escape attempt in the works. The two individuals involved were relocated to another facility.
Golden Deputy Chief Joe Harvey said he estimates that there have been between six and seven escapes from the facility since 2010, not including people not returning from temporary releases.
