VA- Sex offender to serve five years for living in hole near school

8-25-2009 Virginia:

A convicted sex offender who fled to Georgia and lived in a hole dug near an elementary school has been sentenced to serve five years in prison.

____, 53, was convicted in 1996 of attempted rape, forcible sodomy and taking indecent liberties with a child, according to the Virginia Sex Offender Registry. He fled to Georgia after his release from prison.

Prosecutor Wendy Alexander argued Monday in Circuit Court that he deserved to be jailed again. Authorities in Georgia had found him in 2006 with pornography. Even worse, she said, he was living in a large hole covered with a blanket and leaves, less than 100 yards from his grandkids’ elementary school.

____ was extradited and sentenced to six months in the Virginia Beach city jail. At the time, prosecutors didn’t know he had been caught so close to a school, or that he had pornography, Alexander said. When they learned those details, she said, they charged him with violating specific terms of his probation.

____ finished his six-month sentence but remained in jail on the new charge. He posted bond in 2007 and fled to Arizona, where authorities finally found him in March, Alexander said. He was homeless, and police arrested him after he gave a false name, she said.

____ still faces additional jail time. He is set for a Sept. 9 hearing on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender. ..Source.. by Shawn Day