Search continues for Sutter County Jail escapee | Crime

SUTTER COUNTY, CA - On Thursday, authorities continued to search for a minimum-security inmate who escaped from Sutter County Jail on Wednesday night.

Sutter County Jail commander, Capt. David Sampson, told the Appeal Democrat that Jonathan Nickolas Pattee, 26, broke out of jail around 10:10 p.m., slipping through a fire door, before scaling a 14-foot razor-wire fence and disappearing.

Corrections officers were alerted to Pattee's escape by a sounding alarm from the fire door through which the inmate had exited, said Sampson. Pattee was then observed fleeing on surveillance video, and a head count was conducted to determine the prisoner's identity.

Despite recently upgrading the security fence, Pattee was able to slip through a gap where there is no razor-wire, Sampson revealed.

"He apparently planned it," Sampson told the Appeal Democrat. "In the minimum security facility, we've had walk aways before. We recently upgraded the fence. ...There is a gap on the gate where he went over, the concertina wire (is not there.) We'll have to address that gap with the contractor, have them come back out and fix that."

Pattee was not deemed a violent or "overly dangerous" inmate by Sampson. He was originally sentenced on a property crime for driving a car without consent and serving his three-year sentence as a realignment inmate since May 22, 2012.

Pattee was described as a white man, 6'1" tall, weighing 160 pounds with green eyes and brown hair. He has a tattoo on his neck that reads 530 and may have recently had visitors from Penn Valley.

Anyone with information on Pattee or his current whereabouts was asked to call authorities.