Son of Former Douglas County Manager Arrested in Gardnerville

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Julio Avael III was arrested 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after hitchhiking 280 miles across northern Nevada.

Avael, 19, was reported missing Monday night from the Carlin Conservation Camp, where he was serving a one to four year sentence for burglary and grand larceny.

Some of the burglarized homes were in the Autumn Hills area of Douglas County that was damaged by fire in June.

Avael is the son of former Douglas County manager Julio Avael, who left this summer and is now city manager in Key West, Fla.

During his journey from Carlin, Avael periodically phoned his father and sheriff's detective Keith Logan.

Logan said he told Avael III that it would be in his best interest to turn himself in.

"He knows he's in deep trouble," Logan told the Reno-Gazette Journal.

Avael's father called the newspaper from Florida, asking whether a reporter might help his son surrender.

According to the Gazette-Journal, Avael said his son told him he walked away from the Carlin prison camp after being beaten by other inmates several days before.

"He was just a sack of nerves. He was crying and sobbing," Avael said of his son, the newspaper reported.

Prison spokesman Glen Whorton could not confirm the younger Avael's claim of being beaten, but said he was among a group of inmates involved in an argument during a basketball game last Friday.

"It was a verbal altercation. There were no injuries," Whorton said.

Detective Logan said the youth showed no obvious signs of injuries Tuesday evening.