LAS VEGAS — A man convicted of murder in the 2007 Luxor bombing escaped Tuesday from the Southern Desert Correctional Center, authorities said.
Porfirio Duarte-Herrera, 42, was serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2010 of building and planting a pipe bomb atop a car in the Luxor parking garage, killing a casino hot dog stand worker.
Duarte-Herrera was considered a medium-security inmate, according to a statement from the Nevada Department of Corrections. He was reported missing after officers checked on him at 7 a.m.
“Escape procedures were initiated approximately 8 a.m., and search teams remain in effect,” officials wrote in the statement.
Duarte-Herrera is 5-foot-4 and 135 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair.
The Metropolitan Police Department was alerted to the escape, but it was not immediately clear what steps had been taken to track down Duarte-Herrera.
“We are aware of it and our officers are being vigilant,” Metro Officer Larry Hadfield said.
Duarte-Herrera’s friend Omar Rueda-Denvers also was convicted of murder in the bombing. Prosecutors said he orchestrated the attack to bring harm to his ex-girlfriend, Caren Chali, and her lover, Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, 27, who died in the blast.
Chali, the mother of Rueda-Denvers’ then 3-year-old daughter, was not harmed in the bombing.
Antonio was killed after he unwittingly picked up the bomb atop his car after his shift at the Luxor.
The killing initially stoked fears of a possible terrorist attack on the Strip, but investigators quickly zeroed in on two suspects.
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for Duerte-Herrera and Rueda-Denvers. The two were found guilty in 2010 of one count each of murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon. Neither is eligible for parole.
In 2019, a federal judge granted Rueda-Denvers a new trial, ruling that he was unable to cross-examine his co-defendant, whose incriminating statements to police were presented to the jury.
Rueda-Denvers faced a retrial in 2021 and was convicted of murder, attempted murder, possession of an explosive or incendiary device and transportation or receipt of explosives.
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