DENVER — Prison officials didn't have to go far to find a convicted killer on the lam since Dec. 7, nabbing him Friday afternoon in a hotel just 100 yards from Colorado Department of Corrections headquarters.
Officers found Allan F. Lucero, 23, in a room at the Springs Motel, just across the parking lot from the central offices for the state's prison system.
"We have appreciated the irony," said Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
Someone phoned Crimestoppers about 12:30 p.m. Friday with a tip that Lucero was staying at the hotel.
At the time, state prison officials were manning an emergency command center just across the parking lot in anticipation of the new year.
There was no sign of the other two men who escaped from the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility with Lucero — Gonzalo B. Martinez, 19; and Alfredo Serna, 21.
"We consider all three of them dangerous," Morgan said.
Authorities hoped to learn the whereabouts of Martinez and Serna in interviews with Lucero.
Lucero was scheduled to be transferred to the Colorado State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison in Canon City.
Lucero was not armed when he was arrested. It wasn't clear how long he'd been staying at the motel, Morgan said.
More than one state corrections officer could face discipline in the escape.
Brian Burnett, deputy director of administration for Department of Corrections, said the investigation into the escape was continuing, but that it was clear human error had played an important role in the jailbreak.
"Clearly, we don't see it as part of a conspiracy," he said.
The three inmates got their hands on a pair of pliers they were able to use to cut through a fence, Burnett said.
At the same time, the perimeter wasn't being properly monitored at the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility.
Serna's mother, Diana Martinez, 42, of Westminster, and a former inmate, Stacey Torres, 31, of Denver, were jailed and accused of helping with the escape by arranging for a getaway car.