Photo: Shalom Mendoza
SAN RAFAEL — An inmate who escaped from San Quentin State Prison was captured and arrested for a carjacking. The escaped convict was caught December 29th, three days after he fled from a prison work crew.
Not long after the prisoner escaped, a woman was a victim of a carjacking at a nearby parking lot. The carjacking occurred outside Home Depot at 111 Shoreline Drive, less than one mile from San Quentin.
The woman was approached and threatened by a man. She told police the carjacker was holding something under his shirt, and that he threatened to shoot her. She surrendered her car keys, and he allowed her to retrieve her dog from inside the car before he fled.
Soon afterward, the victim’s car was tracked by cameras while traveling over the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. Later, San Rafael detectives learned the carjacking suspect was the man who had escaped from prison, 21-year-old Shalom Mendoza.
Coincidentally, Mendoza was serving a 5-year sentence for using a deadly weapon during an attempted carjacking incident in 2017.
Mendoza evaded capture until December 29. That’s when authorities located Mendoza and the most recent victim’s car in Paso Robles.
San Rafael detectives and crime scene investigators traveled to Paso Robles. They gathered evidence from the stolen car where it was found abandoned on Highway 101.
Meanwhile, Mendoza was apprehended at a Taco Bell restaurant in Paso Robles. Mendoza was arrested by special agents from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
According to San Rafael police, Mendoza was transported to the California Men’s Colony prison, located in San Luis Obispo. Mendoza has charges pending for felony carjacking and prison escape at the Marin County District Attorney’s Office.
