(CNN) –– Louisiana Police concluded a search that spanned 32 years, after they found in Mexico a defendant who fled his trial in 1991 for attempted murder.
In a statement issued by the FBI branch in New Orleans, investigators indicated that they received a tip that Greg Lawson, 63, was hiding in Mexico, something they had suspected since efforts to locate him began. Through a collaboration between agents in Shreveport, Los Angeles and Mexico, Lawson was arrested on September 19.
“There is no doubt that Mr. Lawson would still be at large if our partners in Mexico had not been willing to deal with this so quickly,” Special Agent Douglas A. Williams Jr. said in the statement.
Lawson was initially arrested for shooting a man in Bienville Parish. He then fled the trial just before the jury announced their guilty verdict for attempted murder. According to Bienville Parish Sheriff John E. Ballance, Lawson was free on bond at the time and left during the court’s lunch hour. He never returned.
After he was found in Huatulco, Mexico, Lawson was arrested and deported from Mexico for immigration violations, according to the statement from the FBI in New Orleans. FBI officials have since returned him to Louisiana.
According to Sheriff Ballance, Lawson is currently lodged at the Claiborne Parish Detention Center.
Source: CNN en Español
