Two federal inmates escaped last weekend from the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Virginia, including 26-year-old Alder Marin-Sotelo, one of the men accused of killing Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd.
The Prince Edward County (Virginia) Sherriff's Office said 44-year-old Bruce Callahan also escaped Saturday or Sunday.
“Around 4:00 a.m. (Monday) morning, the Sheriff’s Office was notified that two inmates were missing from the Piedmont Regional Jail”, said Prince Edward Country Sheriff L.A. “Tony” Epps. “We launched an immediate search of the area around the jail utilizing a Virginia State Police helicopter, K9 officers and law enforcement from multiple agencies, but with no success.”
Alder Marin-Sotelo is one of two men charged in the killing of Wake County K-9 Deputy Ned Byrd, who died in the line of duty August 11, 2022. His brother, Arturo Marin-Sotelo, 29 at the time of his arrest, was also charged in Byrd’s killing last year. Jail records show Arturo Marin-Sotelo is still being held in Wake County.
Warrants and Byrd's squad car security footage helped piece together a timeline of events the night he died.
Warrants say Byrd was on Battle Ridge Road, in Southeast Raleigh, on the way to do K-9 training shortly after 11 p.m. when he saw a “lightly colored pickup truck” backed against a fence on the left side of the road.
Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker said Byrd did not appear to feel threatened because the deputy left his K-9 partner, Sasha, in the car. Investigators said that 13 seconds after Byrd exited his vehicle, three gunshots were fired, followed by three more.
The report says one suspect, Alder Marin-Sotelo, drove away 90 seconds after the shooting.
When the sheriff’s office had not heard from Byrd, they sent another deputy to go find him. His body was found around 1 a.m. with gunshot wounds to the head.
The Marin-Sotelo brothers have not yet faced trial for the homicide. Marin-Sotelo pleaded guilty in December and was being held at a Viriginia jail on a federal gun charge, unrelated to the death of Byrd, according to court documents.
