DOVER, Del. – A South Carolina fugitive was back behind bars on New Year’s Day after spending 40 years on the run.
Jose Romero was serving an 18-year sentence for armed robbery from Aiken County when he escaped on Dec. 13, 1979. Romero was assigned to a work crew in Anderson County when he took off.
He was being housed at the former Anderson County Stockade. The building was being used to house short-term local inmates and SCDC inmates assigned to work in the county as part of the designated facilities program.
Romero will be required to serve the remainder of his original sentence, which is about seven years, plus between 10-15 years for an escape conviction. He became a South Carolina fugitive when he was 24, WLTX-TV reported.
Romero was apprehended Wednesday in Dover, Del., where he was living under the name Arnaldo Figueroa, Dover police said Thursday.
Romero’s eventual undoing was a Dec. 28 arrest for public intoxication and trespassing in Dover.
Police processed the case under Romero’s assumed name. His proof of identity was an identification card from the Delaware Department of Motor Vehicles that had been issued to Arnaldo Figueroa, police said.
But police also took his fingerprints, which came back two days after the arrest to Romero “who was a wanted subject out of South Carolina.”
Dover police said officers took Romero into custody Wednesday morning after seeing him as they drove around looking for him.
“He definitely would’ve been out by now and hopefully would’ve gone on to a productive life and take advantage of some of the programs we have at SCDC,” says Bryan Stirling, SCDC director, according to WLTX-TV. “But he decided he wanted to walk away and now he’s looking at some substantial time.”
