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SALT LAKE CITY — Two inmates who escaped from the Uintah County Jail early Wednesday morning are still on the run. The adoptive mother of one of the men says she believes a difficult childhood contributed to his defiance of the law, and she's asking her son to turn himself in.
Nearly 48 hours after their brazen escape through a drier vent at the Uintah County jail, 31-year-old Dallas Derrick and 21-year-old Jason Braham could be anywhere. Thursday night, Cheryl Braham said she hopes her message gets to her son — wherever he is.
I'll always love him, but I don't like the things that he has done.
–Cheryl Braham, inmate's mother
"As his mother, I love him," Cheryl Braham told KSL News. "I'll always love him, but I don't like the things that he has done."
Cheryl adopted Jason when he was 7 years old, taking him away from a rough childhood. "His mother, his natural mother, was verbally abusive to him," she explained. "I think when the change did come, when he went the other way, is they were getting ready to go home to her and she said she didn't want kids anymore. When you're 7 years old, that's devastating."
She said Jason started stealing and breaking into cars at a young age. He was first prosecuted at just 8 years old.
"We took him to psychiatrist and psychologists and all kinds of programs, and no one could get through to him," Cheryl Braham said.
Jason Braham's last run in with the law landed him at the Uintah County Jail. Wednesday morning, jail authorities say he and Derrick escaped by wiggling their way through a dryer vent.
Jason Braham had written a letter to his mother just days before.
"I don't know why he would ask me to come — and you have to go through background checks and all kinds of things — if he wasn't going to be there," Cheryl Braham said.
She said she doesn't know where he is now, but she does have an idea of what led him on this path. "I guess not having anyone who truly loved you and cared for you as a baby" might have something to do with it, she said.
Cheryl Braham said she hopes her son turns himself in. If you happen to see either Jason Braham or Derrick Dallas, police want you to call 911.
