SAN MATEO, Calif. -- An 18-year-old suspected murderer who escaped from the San Mateo County Youth Services Center on Valentine's Day was found and arrested in Texas, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday.

Josue Raul Orozco, 18, was found shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday in San Antonio, Texas by the San Antonio Police Department Tactical Response/Gang Unit, the sheriff's office reported.

Orozco has been booked into the Bexar County jail as Jesus Contreras, the alias he has been using in Texas. His arrest was the result of information developed during the sheriff's office investigation, officials said.

Orozco, a member of the Sureno gang, is the youngest person to be charged as an adult for murder in San Mateo County.

Orozco, who was 17 at the time of the escape, was playing basketball with two other inmates around 7:15 p.m. on Feb. 14 when he scaled a high wall surrounding the athletic area, Chief Probation Officer Loren Buddress said.

Orozco had the two inmates help push him up toward the top of the recreation yard wall, where he grabbed onto a light fixture and pushed aside cloth netting to let himself over the wall and out of the yard. From there, he slid through a hole that had been cut in the chain-link fence and escaped.

The Board of Supervisors voted in February to retain an outside consultant to investigate Orozco's escape, and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency issued a 19-page report in June that found the escape was the result of an ill-prepared staff and an opportune physical layout for an escape.

Vanher Cho and Martin Villa Patino, both 18, were charged in San Mateo County Superior Court for helping Orozco break free.

Cho pleaded no contest April 9 to charges of aiding in the escape of Orozco, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. He was sentenced in June to one year in county jail and five years of supervised probation.

Patino is scheduled to return to court Oct. 17 to set a date for a jury trial to begin.

Orozco and co-defendant Faustino Ayala, 24, were charged with murder and participating in a criminal street gang in connection with the death of 21-year-old Francisco Rodriguez in Redwood City on July 12, 2005. Prosecutors allege that Orozco shot Rodriguez and that Ayala was driving the car. Orozco was 14 at the time of the shooting.

Ayala was found guilty June 23 of second-degree murder with the special allegation the murder was committed and a firearm used for gang purposes.

San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks released a statement today thanking investigators for their efforts to capture Orozco.

"I am proud of the tireless and professional work done by the Sheriff's Office Detective Bureau to bring this investigation to a successful conclusion," Munks said. "My thanks also go out to the men and women of the San Antonio Police Department, who did an outstanding job in effecting the arrest of Orozco."

Sheriff's officials did not immediate comment on when Orozco will be returning to San Mateo County.