Justice or not?

[brassmonkey]

Fugitive found in California 37 years after escape

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? A woman who escaped from a Michigan prison nearly 37 years ago while serving time for attempted larceny was found living under an alias in San Diego, police said Tuesday.

Acting on a tip from the Michigan Department of Corrections, San Diego police went to an apartment on Monday in the Hillcrest neighborhood, where a woman matching the description of fugitive Judy Lynn Hayman answered the door.

She identified herself as Jamie Lewis and produced government documents with the name, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said. Officers, however, remained suspicious because of inconsistencies in her story and her resemblance to an old Michigan mug shot they were holding.

"Her eyes gave her away," Mayer said. "The eyes in the picture matched the eyes of this woman."

The officers took her to a police station, where she eventually acknowledged being Hayman, Mayer said.

Hayman, 60, was being held in a San Diego County jail awaiting extradition to Michigan, where she escaped from the Ypsilanti prison in 1977 while serving time for attempted larceny, Mayer said. He did not know if she had retained an attorney and no court date had been set.

When she escaped, Hayman was about halfway through a minimum sentence of 1 1/2 years for attempting to steal clothes from a Detroit-area store.

Corrections Department spokesman Russ Marlan said Tuesday she must be returned to prison to finish the sentence, which has a maximum term of two years. The state parole board typically determines whether an inmate can be released after serving the minimum.

"We can't just write it off," he said. "We don't have the ability to say it's been a long time, you're free to go," he said.

Authorities in Washtenaw County, Mich., where the prison is located, would decide whether additional charges related to the escape are filed, Marlan said.

It was not immediately clear how long the woman had been living in San Diego. Her 32-year-old son was visiting when police arrived, and officers said he appeared stunned by their questions.

"This seemed very much a surprise to him," Mayer said.

He did not have the son's name, and public listings for the residence under the name Jamie Lewis did not include a phone number.

Neighbors said Hayman had lived in the complex for several years and mostly kept to herself.

Neighbor Maria Lopez, 60, told the U-T San Diego newspaper that Hayman did not appear to work. She said people came by the house to do her laundry, and she had frequent visits from her son.

Mayer said he was impressed by the investigators' ability to "put some dots together" and provide San Diego officers with the right address after nearly four decades.

"I commend them for their tenacity," he said. "This is a very old case."

The case is similar to that of Marie Walsh, who also escaped from a Michigan prison when she was known as Susan LeFevre.

Walsh had served 14 months of a 10-year prison sentence for a heroin deal when she fled in 1976. She was found living under an alias in San Diego, in 2008.

Walsh spent 13 more months in prison then returned to San Diego where she resumed her life with her husband of more than 20 years and wrote a book called "A Tale of Two Lives" about her ordeal.

full article...

[Rochard]

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. She was arrested, convicted, and sentenced... And then broke the law again by escaping.

When my best friend was a kid in the 1970s, he met a Vietnam Vet who was a cashier at a local gas station. This man - David was his name - worked at this gas station from the early 1970s until 2010. Over the years my friend went to high school, joined the military, got divorced, got out, etc.... And this man David still worked at the gas station and they became good friends and eventually room mates. David was not only older, but he was black - not an issue for any of us, but unusual being as he was not only the black friend we had but most likely one of a handful of blacks in town.

He eventually became my friend; He taught me how to build my own computer back in 1995 before you could buy one in a store. David never owned a car the entire time we were friends, but we never questioned it because we just figured he was a "black man in a white town" and was afraid to get pulled over. Turns out, he was afraid of being pulled over.

We didn't know this, but he worked at the gas station so long because he was paid under the table. He was flying completely under the radar. Over the years we tried to figure it out but just couldn't. We didn't exactly put much effort into it.

Eventually he did go get his driver's license and got a small car. He must have been about 65 years old at the time. A short time later the police came knocking.... Turns out his wife left him while he was in Vietnam, he owed child support, refused to pay it, and instead went underground and hid for some forty years.

Sometimes you just don't know people. Lucky for us he wasn't an ax murderer.

[brassmonkey]

Originally Posted by Rochard

If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. She was arrested, convicted, and sentenced... And then broke the law again by escaping.

When my best friend was a kid in the 1970s, he met a Vietnam Vet who was a cashier at a local gas station. This man - David was his name - worked at this gas station from the early 1970s until 2010. Over the years my friend went to high school, joined the military, got divorced, got out, etc.... And this man David still worked at the gas station and they became good friends and eventually room mates. David was not only older, but he was black - not an issue for any of us, but unusual being as he was not only the black friend we had but most likely one of a handful of blacks in town.

He eventually became my friend; He taught me how to build my own computer back in 1995 before you could buy one in a store. David never owned a car the entire time we were friends, but we never questioned it because we just figured he was a "black man in a white town" and was afraid to get pulled over. Turns out, he was afraid of being pulled over.

We didn't know this, but he worked at the gas station so long because he was paid under the table. He was flying completely under the radar. Over the years we tried to figure it out but just couldn't. We didn't exactly put much effort into it.

Eventually he did go get his driver's license and got a small car. He must have been about 65 years old at the time. A short time later the police came knocking.... Turns out his wife left him while he was in Vietnam, he owed child support, refused to pay it, and instead went underground and hid for some forty years.

Sometimes you just don't know people. Lucky for us he wasn't an ax murderer.

man the courts will ruin you. thanx for he story man!