Inmate sentenced to life for fatal Las Vegas bombing escapes from prison

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LAS VEGAS – A 42-year-old bombmaker sentenced to life in prison for a deadly 2007 explosion outside a Las Vegas Strip resort has escaped from a Nevada state prison, have officials announced Tuesday.

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Officials realized Porfirio Duarte-Herrera went missing during an early morning count at the Southern Desert Correctional Center near Las Vegas, and a statement from the state Department of Corrections said search parties were looking for him.

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Duarte-Herrera, from Nicaragua, was convicted in 2010 of killing a hot dog vendor using a motion-activated bomb in a coffee cup on top of a parked car in the Luxor hotel-casino.

Records show his co-accused, Omar Rueda-Denvers, remained in custody on Tuesday. The 47-year-old Guatemalan is serving a life sentence in another Nevada prison for murder, attempted murder, explosives and other charges.

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A Clark County District Court jury spared both men the death penalty in the murder of Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio, whom prosecutors have identified as the boyfriend of Rueda-Denvers’ ex-girlfriend.

Prosecutors said jealousy was the motive for the attack on the upper deck of a two-story car park. The explosion initially raised fears of a terrorist attack in the strip.

Officials described Duarte-Herrera as 5-foot-4, 135 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair.