SANTA MONICA : Fugitive in Hawaii Rape Arrested in Carjacking

A fugitive sought in the rape of a 12-year-old Hawaii girl remained in jail Monday after passersby captured him as he allegedly was attempting a carjacking and the kidnaping of a woman and her child in Santa Monica over the weekend, police said.

Shane Stewart, 30, was being held without bail on attempted kidnaping and attempted carjacking charges after an incident in which he posed as a Time magazine writer in order to befriend a woman who was working as a movie extra on the Santa Monica pier.

Stewart, also known as James Edward Mills Jr., reportedly told people on the set of the movie, “The Net,” that he was doing an article on extras, said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Gary Gallinot.

He invited an unidentified woman extra to lunch Saturday, saying he wanted to focus the article on her, Gallinot said.

The woman picked up Stewart in her car at a hotel with her 2-year-old son in the back seat. Stewart got in and allegedly said, “You should be more careful and not get into cars with someone you don’t know,” Gallinot said.

Frightened, the woman “jumped partially out of the car and started screaming,” said Gallinot. “Stewart slid over, pushed her out and tried to start the car.”

Unable to do so, Gallinot said, Stewart jumped out and ran down the street. Five or six men and women gave chase, he said, following Stewart about a block into a parking garage and holding him until officers arrived,

Police said Stewart had escaped from the Maui Community Correctional Center on March 9 while on a work furlough pass. The same day, he allegedly kidnaped a woman and her 12-year-old daughter outside a school, forced the woman to drive to a sugar cane field and raped the girl.

The mother and daughter were found bound and gagged in the field, and Stewart flew to Honolulu and then Los Angeles, Gallinot said.