Santos Samuel Fonseca, 21, and Jonathan Salazar, 20, crawled through a 22 inch (55 centimeter) hole they cut in a toilet ceiling at the jail in the city of Salinas, south of San Francisco.
The two men were awaiting separate murder trials when they escaped on Sunday. The Sheriff department said they had exploited a blind spot. A large manhunt is currently underway for the fugitives, with a $5,000 reward being offered for information. The pair are considered armed and dangerous.
The pair cut a hole in the bathroom roof, in a spot where the guards couldn't see them, this led them to an maintenance space filled with pipes, they crawled along and found a hatch which they forced open and escaped. The hatch was on the back wall of the jail where there isn't a fence or perimeter security.
Fonseca is accused of killing Lorenzo Gomez Acosta, 37, and Ernesto Garcia Cruz, 27 four days apart in June 2018. Salazar is accused of shooting dead Jaime Martinez, 20, in October 2017.