Murderer, 1 other inmate, escape NM prison transport van

ARTESIA N.M. -- Authorities were searching Thursday for two violent convicts who escaped from a prisoner transport van and likely got a head start of several hours in a rural area of New Mexico before guards realized they were gone.

It appeared neither of the corrections officers had checked on the prisoners between the two stops in a stretch of nearly 200 miles, New Mexico Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel said.

Mercantel couldn't say exactly when and where the convicts had made their escape.

Joseph Cruz and Lionel Clah were last accounted for Wednesday night while in a prisoner transport van in Artesia, a town about 80 miles from the Texas border, New Mexico State Police said.

Both Cruz and Clah were shackled before they fled, and wearing white paper transport suits, reports CBS affiliate KRQE.

They were later seen on hotel surveillance video that surfaced Thursday afternoon showing each wearing jeans. Clah was wearing a red T-shirt, and Cruz was wearing a tan shirt with a collar.

The video was from around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, about seven hours after authorities believe the men made their escape and at least 200 miles north of where corrections officers reported seeing them last.

Cruz and Clah have multiple tattoos, including some that are visible on their neck and arms. Cruz has the word "TRIBAL" tattooed on his neck, while "SHIPROCK NATIVE" is tattooed on Clah's neck.

Authorities describe Cruz as Hispanic, 5-feet-5-inches tall with brown eyes and brown hair, KRQE reports. They also say he has a tattoo reading "Alias" on the back of his neck, with a tribal symbol on his ear and the words "13 Smiley" on his right elbow.

Clah is described as Native American, 5-feet-11-inches tall and has brown eyes and black hair. He also has a tattoo of a feather on his left cheekbone and multiple tattoos on his arm.

The men were being taken from the state prison in Santa Fe to another state facility, authorities said. Details on how they escaped were not immediately released.

"These prisoners should be considered dangerous and the public should use caution," Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo, a police spokeswoman, in a release.

Cruz, 32, has been serving a life sentence for first-degree murder since 2007. Authorities say he fatally stabbed another man over drugs in Raton in northern New Mexico.

Clah, 29, was convicted in 2009 of armed robbery and two counts of assault with intent to commit a violent felony on a peace officer.

Authorities were struggling as they searched for the men.

"At the end of the day, it's really going to be probably solved by someone who calls us," Marcantel said.

The search was joined by the U.S. Border Patrol and local police departments, and it involved dogs, aircraft and foot patrols. State police also were seeking surveillance footage from the gas station in Artesia where the van had stopped.

It was likely a failure in the transport -- not a breakdown in the system -- that led to the men's escape, Marcantel said.

"In almost every case that you have a set of circumstances like this, it is not a matter of a lack of policies, a lack of systems, a lack of structure," he said. "It's a matter of somehow or another we failed in that structure."

Investigators were trying to determine if the escape was planned or spontaneous.

"This must be investigated as something more organized," Marcantel said. "We can't just assume an opportunity (presented itself)."

Their escape came after another inmate fled a minimum-security facility south of Albuquerque in the middle of the night in November. Corrections Department officials warned state lawmakers of dangerously low-staffing levels at facilities across the state.