Border Patrol Captures Escaped Mental Patient, Sex Offender

IMPERIAL VALLEY, Calif. - U.S. Border Patrol agents initiating a traffic stop over the weekend have arrested a 40-year-old mental health hospital patient and convicted sex offender, who escaped from an Arizona asylum on Oct. 17.

Authorities say Jorge Murillo was stopped on a California highway in Imperial Valley. He may have been trying to get to Mexico.

Murillo has been on the run since Oct. 17. He had completed a 10-year stint in the Arizona State Prison System, convicted of a sexual assault in 1999.

Murillo was undergoing evaluation at the Arizona State Hospital, apparently being readied for a 16-year sentence to be served in Los Angeles County for sex crimes he committed there.

Authorities say the Honduran national climbed two 16-foot fences topped with barbed wire to escape.