Fugitive arrested 20 years after escape from federal custody
Associated Press
MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas - An illegal immigrant who walked away from an Oklahoma federal detention camp more than two decades ago was in custody Monday after his arrest during a traffic stop.
Martin Hernandez Gonzalez managed to avoid federal detection for years because his case somehow slipped through the system, said Deputy U.S. Marshal John Laster.
"For some reason, they did not file a complaint on him" for the escape, Laster said.
Hernandez, a Mexican citizen, was serving a sentence of less than a year for a misdemeanor charge of illegal entry into the U.S. when he disappeared about 21 years ago. He left the minimum security camp outside the El Reno Federal Corrections Institution in Oklahoma with a little more than a month left to serve, Laster said.
Hernandez's case didn't surface again until this fall, when prison officials were reviewing their files. A search found he'd been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Mount Pleasant, Laster said.
The information was sent to the U.S. Marshals Service offices in the area. But without a warrant for Hernandez, marshals were apprehensive about arresting him. So Hernandez's name was added to the National Crime Information Center, a database used by law enforcement, Laster said.
When a Mount Pleasant police officer stopped a man Thursday for driving a car without headlights on, authorities captured Hernandez. He was going by Martin Medina Hernandez, 40, the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune reported in Monday's edition.
Hernandez was arrested and charged by local officials with driving while intoxicated. He was being held at Titus County Jail on that count and a federal charge of escape while arrested. Authorities also placed an immigration hold on him, jail officials said.
He will be prosecuted on the DWI charge, serve the remainder of his federal sentence in Texarkana and then be deported, Laster said.
2006-10-10
23:38:48
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