Charges dropped against woman arrested as prison escapee from Michigan

SAN DIEGO - Charges were dropped Friday against a 60-year-old woman arrested on a fugitive warrant claiming she escaped in 1977 from a Michigan prison.

Prosecutors dropped charges after long-lost documents in Michigan proved that the woman, after escaping, was convinced to surrender in 1982 and a judge then sentenced her to time already served.

Judy Lynn Hayman, who goes by the name Jamie Lewis, is set to be released from jail within a few hours.

Hayman was arrested by San Diego police Feb. 3 at her apartment in the Balboa Park area, acting on a warrant from the Michigan Department of Corrections.

She initially denied being Hayman but later admitted that was her name, authorities said. She was booked into the women’s jail in Santee to await an extradition proceeding.

Hayman was convicted in 1976 on a larceny charge in Wayne County. Sentenced to serve between 16 and 24 months, she escaped from the Huron Valley Correctional Facility after serving 10 months.

Hayman has gone by several aliases and had reportedly lived in San Diego at least seven years.

When she was convicted of larceny in 1976, Hayman already had convictions for disorderly conduct, drug use and theft. She was sentenced to 16 to 24 months at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Mich.

She escaped after 10 months, probably by walking away from the unfenced facility, authorities said.

Her capture was initially attributed to the snowstorms that have gripped Michigan and much of the country.

Unable to do street-level investigations, an officer in the Department of Corrections apprehensions unit selected the records of about 40 escapees from the 1960s and 1970s.

Fingerprint cards were sent to the FBI, Social Security records were checked, and the Internet was scoured. Michigan officials say she was tracked to California by fingerprints from arrests in San Diego.

When the three officers came to the apartment, Hayman’s 32-year-old son was visiting. He was unaware that his mother was a fugitive, police said.

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tony.perry@latimes.com