Taxi driver talks about being held captive by jail inmates

The taxi driver kidnapped by three O.C. jail escapees said he never knew the most wanted men in California were in his car when he first picked them up two weeks ago in Garden Grove.

The men told 74-year-old Long Ma to take them to the Walmart in Santa Ana, then a Target and Flamingo Hotel in Rosemead.

That's when he realized his life was on the line.

"When I realized they were escapees, and they were dangerous - the only thing I thought is that I would die," said Ma.

For hundreds of miles, he says he kept his eyes on a small Buddha in his car, hoping it would bring protection and luck.

But he quickly learned the one the inmates, Hossein Nayeri wanted to kill him.

"I overheard them say "boom" old man," said Ma.

Ma served as a captain in the Vietnamese Army, and now he had guns drawn at him again.

He says he fantasized about escaping, just as the other three men had.

"During the time they took me out, they follow me very closely, at some point I thought about telling someone else that these are the escapees, but I didn't have the chance," said Ma.

Finally at the Alameda Hotel in San Jose, inmates Bac Duong got in a fight with Hossein Nayeri.

Nayeri wanted to kill Ma.

Duong, hoping to have a chance to see his family one day, drove Ma back to Santa Ana before turning himself into an auto shop.

"When Bac Duong said he wanted to turn himself in, I said yeah -- that's the way to go - and then he said to me, you're actually like my father - so why don't you accept me as your lost son, and you my father," said Ma.

Ma says he hopes Duong sentence is shortened.

"I'm so grateful to him of course....because he saved my life," said Ma.

Ma says he'll continue driving his cab. And he hopes his luck continues.

"I miss Vietnam, I would like to go back to Vietnam," said Ma