SANTA ANA, Calif. — The suspected mastermind of a three-man escape from a Southern California jail said he never intended to harm anyone during his eight days on the run.
In a jailhouse interview, Hossein Nayeri told the Orange County Register he didn't want anyone to get hurt and asserted that he's innocent of the kidnapping and torture charges that landed him in jail two years ago.
"I'm a nice guy," he said Friday. "I've done a lot of things for humanity that are opposite of what I have been accused of."
Nayeri, 37, who was recaptured Jan. 30 after traveling 400 miles to the San Francisco Bay Area, added that being a fugitive was more stressful than liberating.
"I wouldn't say it was enjoyable," he said.
Nayeri, 20-year-old murder suspect Jonathan Tieu and 43-year-old attempted murder suspect Bac Duong escaped from the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana on Jan. 22 by sawing through a metal grate, climbing inside jail walls to reach the roof and rappelling down four stories using a rope made of sheets.
They eluded authorities until their alliance unraveled after a dispute about whether to kill a cab driver they had taken hostage. The cab driver said Nayeri wanted to kill him and Duong did not.
Nayeri declined to comment on the matter.
Nayeri said he closely followed news coverage of the escape and manhunt during his time on the run and insists he's not the villain portrayed by the media and prosecutors.
"The media coverage was insane. I was convicted in the court of public opinion. It blows my mind."