Daggett Jail escapee pleads guilty

MANILA, Daggett County — A convicted killer who escaped from the Daggett County Jail has pleaded guilty to a felony charge.

During his appearance in Manila's 8th District Court on Friday, Danny Martin Gallegos, 50, pleaded guilty to a charge of escape, a third-degree felony. Gallegos was sentenced to serve up to five years in prison.

Gallegos and Juan Diaz-Arevalo, 27, escaped from the rural Utah jail last year by slipping out an unlocked door, over a razor wire fence and into the mountains nearby. They were on the run for a week until they were captured in Green River, Wyo. Gallegos was shot in the capture.

The escape led to an overhaul of inmates being housed in county jails. Both men were convicted killers. Gallegos pleaded guilty to the 1990 slaying of Tammy Snydergaard of Sandy.