SILVER CITY - An inmate convicted of battery and violation of an order of protection who was accidentally released by the Grant County Detention Center remains on the loose almost two weeks after the mishap occurred.
Shaun Sandoval, 25, pleaded guilty April 8 to one charge of battery; two charges of violation of an order of protection; one charge of use of phone to terrify, intimidate or threaten; and one charge of possession of paraphernalia, court documents show. Sandoval was sentenced in Silver City Magistrate Court to serve 270 days in jail.
Misplaced or misfiled paperwork led to the detention center releasing Sandoval on May 26, Jim Moffett, Grant County Detention Center administrator, has said.
"He is still a wanted individual," Moffett said Monday. "It's my understanding that he had a civil matter in court last week in which he failed to show up because he knew he would be taken into custody."
The detention center doesn't have a picture of Sandoval on file, Moffett has said.
According to court documents, on the day Sandoval was released, his mother called the Magistrate Court to inquire as to why her son had been released from jail. The Magistrate Court contacted the detention center and it was determined that the paperwork had been misplaced. Magistrate Court personnel called Sandoval's mother and told her that her son needed to return to jail and if he had returned at that time, he wouldn't have been in trouble because the detention center had made the error.
When the situation was realized, Moffett said detention center officers went to three residences Sandoval was known to frequent but failed to find him.