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Inmate captured 5 months after escape pleads not guilty

Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez appeared in court Friday afternoon, where he pleaded not guilty to both charges against him.
Credit: Louis Ramirez, KUSA
Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez appeared in court Friday afternoon.

KUSA — The man who was apprehended five months after he escaped during a prisoner transport pleaded not guilty during a court appearance on Friday.

Mauricio Venzor-Gonzalez will be tried separately for the charges against him. Before he escaped the morning of March 19, he was being held for suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly shooting a police officer during a traffic stop.

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He will now stand trial for those charges in early March 2019, and once that concludes, court proceedings related to his escape will begin.

During court on Friday, a motion to consolidate the cases was waived by the District Attorney’s Office.

After months on the run, Venzor-Gonzalez was arrested the morning of Aug. 24 in Thornton, according to a tweet from the Denver Police Department.

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This is 13 miles away from Denver Health Medical Center, where Venzor-Gonzalez was last seen running away during a scheduled appointment.

According to an arrest affidavit released earlier this week, Venzor-Gonzalez’s girlfriend Samantha Adams is accused of helping to facilitate his escape and knew of the plan ahead of time.

The affidavit said Adams told police she received a letter from Venzor-Gonzalez three weeks before his appointment that detailed the plan. In the letter, investigators claim Venzor-Gonzalez told Adams to park a car a half mile from the hospital.

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She said she saw Venzor-Gonzalez run toward that vehicle in a green-colored jail uniform. She later met her boyfriend at a friend’s apartment, and gave him a ride to West Hampden Avenue and Federal Boulevard.

Denver Sheriff Patrick Firman told 9NEWS that Venzor-Gonzalez had been previously sought by immigration officials for possible deportation. On Dec. 28, 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent the Denver Sheriff's Department a request for release notification for Venzor-Gonzalez. The sheriff's department's policy would have been to notify ICE once he began the release process.

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