Prisoner escape baffles officials

Cheryl Miller

Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

Investigators were still trying to figure out today how a prisoner charged in one of the largest bank robberies in Las Vegas history was able to elude a number of security measures and escape from the North Las Vegas Detention Center Wednesday night.

Timothy Blackburn, 26, who was at the center awaiting trial on charges of robbing more than $1 million from a Bank of America ATM repository last year, was visiting with his wife, Puthea Lim, 24, around 11:30 p.m.

Lim apparently used some type of tool to remove the brackets that held a security glass partition that separated her from her husband, Sgt. Dan Lake said.

Reports that the tool was a drill were incorrect, he said. There were no guards in the visiting room at the time, Lake said.

The couple then managed to escape through a series of security doors without the notice of guards or security cameras that scan the area. The doors are typically opened only by guards, Lake said.

While fleeing through the center's parking lot, Blackburn or Lim fired three shots at two warrant officers who happened to be walking there. The officers fired back 27 times, North Las Vegas Police Lt. Chris Larotonda said. No one was hit, although a pickup truck parked in the lot was damaged.

It is not clear whether Lim brought the gun with her into the center or whether it was hidden outside, Lake said, adding that the center's visiting area did not have a metal detector, "but there soon will be" one.

Blackburn and Lim fled in a gray or silver Isuzu pickup truck that was later recovered in a North Las Vegas neighborhood. The couple has not been located. They are now wanted on felony charges of attempted murder, escape and aiding and abetting an escaped prisoner.

North Las Vegas police, corrections officers from the detention center and the FBI are investigating the jail break and looking for Blackburn and his wife.

"We're still investigating how this occurred and what procedures were not followed," Lake said.

Authorities consider Blackburn, a Las Vegas resident, one of the ring-leaders of a group that allegedly kidnapped a janitorial crew in December 1998 and used their keys to break into an ATM bank vault repository. The robbers waited inside the building for the arrival of an armored car, which they robbed of more than $1 million in cash.

During the heist, a gun discharged and one of the armored car's guards was wounded.

After the robbery, police found most of the money stashed in bushel bags in a dog house in Blackburn's backyard.

Blackburn was tentatively scheduled to go to trial next month. Two people accused of being involved in the theft pled guilty to possession of stolen cash last week.

Blackburn is 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 215 pounds and had long black hair and a slim mustache.

Anyone with information about Blackburn and Lim's whereabouts can call North Las Vegas police at 633-9111 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.