Escapee Sought in Robbery Captured
A federal prison escapee accused of robbing a bank last week in Fountain Valley was arrested at a hotel in Wilmington Tuesday morning, U. S. marshals said.
Manuel Garcia Bracamonte, 33, who had been serving a 25-year sentence for bank robbery when he fled from the penitentiary at Lompoc on April 21, surrendered to marshals and Los Angeles police without incident, according to Melissa Ashburn, a deputy marshal.
Ashburn said the officers closed in after receiving a tip from an informant.
Bracamonte, originally charged with 14 bank robberies between September and November, 1986, was convicted of four of them and sent to prison.
Officials said he escaped by hiding in a box that was hauled outside the prison gates on a forklift.
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