San Diego

A 36-year-old inmate who has been at large since he escaped Sept. 3 from San Diego County Jail downtown was arrested Monday by Los Angeles police outside a downtown Los Angeles hotel, a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

John Pugh, also known as Preston Jones, of the 3600 block of Oceanview Drive, was apprehended outside the Stratfort Hotel by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Fugitive Detective Unit, Deputy Lorraine Truitt said.

Pugh, who was placed in the County Jail downtown after he escaped in July from the County Jail in El Cajon, struggled with officers and threatened to escape again, Truitt said.

San Diego authorities alerted Los Angeles police to Pugh’s whereabouts earlier this month after they received a confidential report that Pugh was staying at the downtown hotel, she said.

Pugh, who was registered at the hotel under the name of John Gill, is classified as an “extreme escape risk” and details concerning his transfer to San Diego County are being withheld, Truitt said.

Pugh, a convicted burglar, escaped from both jails by descending makeshift ropes constructed of sheets.

Pugh was accompanied on his last escape by Leon Morse, 35, who was serving a 15-year to life sentence for murder and child molestation. Morse is still at large, Truitt said.