Suspect Held in Kidnaping, Robbery and JPL Escape

A man suspected of hijacking a car to elude police after allegedly holding up a Pasadena lumber yard on Thursday and who slipped through a dragnet at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the next day was finally captured Sunday at a Pasadena motel, police said.

Timothy M. Howze, 36, of Pasadena surrendered to police after they knocked on his door at the Capri Motel in the 1500 block of Lincoln Avenue about 12:15 p.m., a little more than an hour after a caller told authorities that he had checked into the motel, Police Lt. Robert Montoya said.

Howze, who worked as a janitor at the laboratory, was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and kidnaping and will be held without bail at least until Tuesday, when police take the case to the district attorney’s office. Howze, who once served three years in prison for bank robbery, is a suspect in several recent robberies in Pasadena and additional charges may be filed, Montoya said.

Howze surrendered peacefully to officers who surrounded the hotel, spotted him leaving the room momentarily to get a soft drink and knocked on the door when he went back inside.

Officers and Howze “spoke briefly through the door” before Howze “gave up willingly, without incident,” Montoya said. Police searched his room but were unable to locate a revolver used in the robbery.

Police said investigators had been trailing Howze for several days before the Thursday holdup. A police helicopter had followed him from JPL to the lumber yard at Lincoln Avenue and Palisades Street on Thursday. Officers were in the process of setting up a stakeout when the holdup occurred.

“We were just getting set up when he hit the place,” Wiley said.

Police said Howze got about $500 before dashing into the slow lane of the Foothill Freeway and commandeering a car driven by a woman who was accompanied by her parents.

Police said Howze told the woman to drive onto the nearby 170-acre JPL complex, which serves as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s headquarters for unmanned space exploration.

Howze fled the car under a hail of police bullets and ducked into a building, Montoya said. He later managed to elude a seven-hour search of the grounds by Pasadena police and a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department special weapons team assisted by helicopters and trained dogs.

The search was called off Thursday night but was resumed about 11 a.m. Friday when Howze was spotted by a JPL employee jumping out the window of an abandoned building and driving off in a government pickup. The truck was found abandoned Friday evening in the 200 block of Del Monte Street, about two miles away.

Montoya said it was not surprising that Howze eluded officers who combed the JPL facility, where Howze apparently spent the night.

“He was totally familiar with the grounds,” Montoya said. “It was his turf, so to speak.”

Motel manager Ching Cheng Tsai said Howze arrived at the Capri about 9 a.m. Sunday and checked in under the name Joe Williams. Tsai’s son, James, said Howze paid $26 in cash, and said he planned to stay one day. Tsai and his son said they did not know who Howze was until police arrived.

James Tsai said police mistakenly arrested another man who had a handgun in his room. But police Sgt. Joe Wiley said investigators merely “detained” a man while arresting Howze, but later released the individual. Wiley would not say why the man was questioned.

Howze, who lived with his wife and three children near the motel, had a cut hand from scaling a fence at the lumber yard but was otherwise uninjured, police said.