Suspected Burnet County Jail escapee wanted in 2009 break-in, rape nabbed in San Antonio
BURNET — More than two years after disappearing from the Burnet County Jail, a Salvadoran national accused in a brutal home invasion and rape is headed back to the Highland Lakes.
Sheriff W.T. Smith said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents picked up Nuana Antonio Fuentes-Sanchez, 25, of El Salvador in San Antonio Aug. 3.
“I’m still waiting to meet with the Texas Rangers to learn the circumstances around his arrest,” Smith said. “But he is in custody and he’s coming back to Burnet County.”
Fuentes-Sanchez was expected to return to the jail later in the evening, the sheriff added.
Fuentes-Sanchez is charged with escape, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, burglary of a habitation with intent to commit robbery, injury to an elderly person and two counts of aggravated sexual assault, according to court records.
Bond is pending.
According to investigators, he is a laborer and an undocumented immigrant who was living in Granite Shoals prior to his arrest in April 2009.
The arrest stemmed from a break-in by three men at the home Bobby and Cassandra “Sandy” Doyal in the 300 block of Stone Mountain Drive north of Marble Falls.
Both of the Doyals were beaten and Mrs. Doyal was sexually assaulted, according to testimony during the trial of one of the men. Several items were stolen from the home.
Fuentes-Sanchez disappeared from the newly opened Burnet County Jail Aug. 30. Deputies believe he escaped from the jail by climbing onto the building’s roof shortly after a recreation period in the jail’s outdoor yard when a guard was distracted.
He then apparently climbed down a water pipe and made his way to freedom, investigators said. The jail, operated under a private-public partnership, had only been open a few months.
So far only one man of five arrested has been tried in connection with the home-invasion case. Authorities said all are believed to be from El Salvador.
In June, a Burnet County jury convicted 21-year-old Gilberto Hernandez on the same charges Fuentes-Sanchez faces in connection with the attack on the Doyals.
The jury sentenced him to life in prison for one of the sexual assault charges and 99 years in prison for the other.
State District Judge Guilford “Gil” L. Jones stacked the sentences so Hernandez will serve them consecutively.
A third man — 30-year-old Alvaro Estrada Caceres — faces the same charges with the exception of the two counts of aggravated sexual assault.
He remains in the jail and is scheduled for trial Aug. 8.
The Doyals’ ordeal began about 12:30 a.m. April 9, 2009, when they awoke to find three armed men in their home.
During her testimony, Cassandra Doyal, a nurse, told jurors her husband took out his pistol and went to confront the men, but they grabbed him and beat him before the 68-year-old Burnet County resident could get a shot off.
Mrs. Doyal, 51, told the court she attempted to help her husband, but one of the men attacked her.
After beating the couple and ransacking the house, two of the assailants raped her, Doyal testified.
Bobby Doyal was treated at Seton Highland Lakes Hospital for his injuries. Investigators who spoke to him developed information that led them to a residence in Granite Shoals, where they arrested five men.
Investigators said one of the men had worked on the Doyals’ home a year earlier.
Two others — 27-year-old Carlos Eriberto Sanchez and 22-year-old Aron Jose Fuentes-Sanchez — are charged with theft of a firearm from the elderly and theft from the elderly $1,500-$20,000.
They also remain behind bars.
Smith said he would release more details about the arrest of Nuana Antonio Fuentes-Sanchez as they become available.
Editor Thomas Edwards contributed to this story.