A 55-year-old fugitive who spent eight years on the run after escaping from a federal prison in California has been captured and charged, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said last week.
A federal grand jury on Thursday returned a one-count indictment against Eric Pree of San Francisco, charging him with escape from custody, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert of the Eastern District of California said in a news release Thursday.
Pree was convicted of federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in 2012, according to Talbert’s office. He was sentenced to one year and five months.
Pree served his sentence at the US Atwater Penitentiary until January 29, 2017, when he was found missing from the facility.
“Pree was not authorized to leave the Atwater facility and remained at large until his arrest” nearly two months ago, Talbert’s office said in its news release.
In October, investigators found Pree in the California city of Walnut Creek and arrested him there.
At the time of his arrest, authorities said Pree had several cellphones and identification cards, as well as debit and credit cards in several people’s names. He also had multiple driver’s licenses and a fake Harvard University student ID.
Pree is back in federal custody to serve the remainder of his original sentence as he faces additional charges for his alleged jailbreak. The maximum statutory penalty for this crime is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
But Pree’s final sentence “will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of all applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, taking into account a number of variables,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Cody S. Chapple is expected to prosecute the case, which is the result of an investigation by the State Department and the U.S. Marshals Service.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
