The price on the heads of the three dangerous felons who escaped Orange County Men's Jail quadrupled Tuesday to $200,000.
The reward for information that could lead to their capture was upped by the county's Board of Supervisors as Deputy District Attorney Heather Brown likened escapee Hossein Nayeri to movie man-eater Hannibal Lecter from "The Silence of the Lambs."
“He’s diabolical,” Brown told the Orange County Register. “My first reaction was: 'Oh, my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out.' He is sophisticated, incredibly violent and cunning.”
Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas later called Brown's remarks "inappropriate."
Nayeri was being held of two counts of kidnapping, extortion, aggravated mayhem, torture and other charges stemming from a stomach-churning episode in 2012 when he used a blowtorch to torture licensed pot deal and sliced off his penis.
Nayeri, 37, escaped on Friday with two men described by the local sheriff's department as Vietnamese gang members Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Bac Duong, 43.
Tieu had been in the Santa Ana jail since October 2013 and charged with murder, attempted murder and street terrorism.
Duong had been at the jail for little over a month and was charged with attempted murder, burglary, three firearms violations and other charges.
Hundreds of deputies and the FBI are searching for the trio and investigators have been questioning friends and relatives of the wanted men.
