Manhunt Ends as S.D. Fugitive Is Recaptured : Crime: Escapee and accused killer Johnaton George surrenders without incident at a house in L.A. County.

Eighteen heavily armed law enforcement officers surrounded a house near Los Angeles early Tuesday and apprehended a San Diego convict who a week earlier allegedly killed a motorist and fled in his car after escaping from a jail van.

Johnaton Sampson George, 34, surrendered without a struggle after running out a back door of the Compton house where he had been staying for about three days. Ten officers trained weapons on George as he stepped into the back yard, Compton Police Sgt. Ron Malachi said.

“After appraising the situation, he decided to surrender,” Malachi said. “He really didn’t have another option.”

With an extensive criminal record that includes rape, burglary, lewd acts upon a child and three successful escapes, authorities had been concerned that the 6-foot, 240-pound George would engage them in a shootout in an attempt to avoid being taken back into custody.

As it happened, police said, George was watching television with friends when two Compton officers knocked on the front door about 1:30 a.m. and said they were responding to a report of a domestic dispute.

Since Saturday, George had been staying at the home of Terry Lynn Smith, who told The Times on Tuesday that a mutual friend had described George as a man down on his luck who needed a place to stay.

Authorities said no one in the house knew of George’s criminal history, and Smith described him as a genial guest, doing chores, helping with housework and fixing plumbing. George slept on Smith’s couch for three nights, and called himself Charlie.

Neighbors described Smith and her mother, Almenteen Givens, who lives in a house behind Smith, as devout Christians who have often opened their homes to those in need.

“I take them all in,” Givens said. “I don’t ask questions. What they need, I give.”

Although police say that George, Givens, Smith and Stanley Smith, were all up watching television when officers went to the house, Terry Lynn Smith said the entire household was asleep.

Authorities said that when George heard the knock at the front door he immediately ran to the back door and unlocked it. When he heard footsteps inside the house, he bolted out the back door and was confronted by shotgun-wielding officers.

“He didn’t say anything,” according to San Diego Police Lt. Glenn Breitenstein of the special investigations unit. “He knew it was over.”

San Diego Assistant Police Chief Ken Fortier said at a news conference that a tip from a retired sheriff’s deputy led to George’s recapture. The retired deputy, who learned of George’s whereabouts from confidential informants, was not identified.

“We are glad we were able to play an important part in George’s recapture,” said Dan Greenblat, a spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. “This was a tragedy from which everyone will learn. A vicious and heartless individual is back behind bars.”

After the Oct. 5 escape and shooting, George spent the night somewhere in San Diego County and then went to Los Angeles County the next day, Fortier said, adding that George spent several days in various Los Angeles County locations before going to the Compton home Saturday morning.

Several reported sightings of George in San Diego County in the days after his escape proved to be erroneous, Fortier said.

George’s escape frightened San Diego residents and raised concerns over methods employed by the Sheriff’s Department in transporting prisoners. George was being returned from a court appearance in El Cajon to the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown when he apparently slipped out of his handcuffs and waist chains and kicked open the door of the van in the heart of the bustling Gaslamp Quarter.

Information on his two previous breakouts and numerous warnings about the escape threat posed by George were never relayed to 59-year-old Deputy Lydia Werner, who was transporting him and another inmate when the escape occurred, authorities said.

Police said that once out of the van, George confronted a woman who was sitting in her car, pulled her out and demanded her keys. She resisted.

Werner ran two blocks, caught up with George and tackled him. George pummeled Werner, took her gun and then stopped a taxicab, pointing the gun at the driver, Mark McGee.

Police said McGee grabbed George’s gun and that the two wrestled for control of the weapon in the cab while it was moving. McGee said George bit him on the face and that he began accelerating and braking until George fell to the ground.

Still wielding the gun, George allegedly stopped a Honda Civic, opened the door and fired a single, fatal shot at the head of Michael (Mick) Champion, who had been out playing darts and watching “Monday Night Football” with a friend in the Gaslamp Quarter. George then drove off in Champion’s car, police said.

Pam Champion, the victim’s widow, said Tuesday that she was “very relieved” at the news of George’s arrest.

“I am relieved for myself and my family and friends and other people who were in danger because he was out there,” she said. “But this is only the beginning. It’s going to be a long, uphill climb. I want (George) to get the maximum penalty. I would like him to get the death penalty.”

Champion said she still wants answers from the Sheriff’s Department about why Werner was not told George was dangerous and why only one deputy was assigned to transport him.

Sheriff Jim Roache has said he is investigating the circumstances that led to George’s escape. Additionally, Fortier said Tuesday that the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service will conduct their own investigations into the escape.

“A lot of mistakes have been made on the part of the Sheriff’s Department,” Champion said, declining to elaborate.

Court records show that in 1978 George escaped from a state mental hospital in San Bernardino County, where he had been placed as a mentally disturbed sex offender. He was recaptured and sentenced to five years to life in prison.

George escaped from a Chula Vista courthouse holding cell three months ago during a break in his trial for allegedly robbing a San Ysidro grocery store.

He was awaiting trial on federal charges in connection with that breakout when he escaped Oct. 5.

At the time of Tuesday’s raid in Compton, authorities made simultaneous visits to homes in Chicago and Murphysboro, Ill., where it was believed George might seek refuge with friends.

But as 18 officers from the Compton and San Diego police departments, San Diego County and federal marshals, and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms surrounded the house, they were certain he was inside and not in Illinois, said John Clark, a supervising deputy in the U.S. Marshals Service.

“When push came to shove, we had no doubt he was in that Compton home,” Clark said.

For the week that he was a fugitive, authorities had warned the public that George was extremely dangerous and should not be approached. George’s father insisted that his son probably wouldn’t be taken alive.

In all, a task force of 10 San Diego police officers, five county marshals, 18 U.S. marshals, six Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and 11 Compton police officers worked the George case.

George was brought back to San Diego from Compton on Tuesday morning in a convoy of law enforcement vehicles. He was seated in the back of a patrol car, sandwiched between two U.S. marshals. He was bound with leg shackles and handcuffs.

Police said George told them after his arrest that he had disposed of Champion’s car in Hawthorne in Los Angeles County, but it had not been recovered by late Tuesday. A gun was found in the Compton house, but it was not the weapon taken from Deputy Werner, Fortier said.

George was returned to the Metropolitan Correctional Center. He appeared in federal court Tuesday afternoon on various motions related to charges of escape and being a felon in possession of a firearm, which had been lodged before his Oct. 5 escape.

After his latest escape, George was charged with murder, two counts of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery, battery of an officer and assault with a firearm.

Two special-circumstance allegations have been filed with the murder charge--that it was committed in the course of a robbery and while escaping from lawful custody--which could lead to the death penalty. George is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning on those charges.

Times staff writer Gerald Faris and correspondent Thom Mrozek contributed to this report.

A TRUSTING SOUL: Woman who sheltered fugitive often took in the needy. B1