The U.S. Marshals captured a convicted sex offender who was on the loose after being released from a Virginia prison. The man was an easy spot on for the marshals as he has tattoos covering his face, head and neck.
44-year-old Matthew Ezekiel Stager, was released from the Federal Correctional Complex in Petersburg last Thursday. He failed to show up at a transitional centre in Texas that day although the Bureau of Prisons provided Stager transportation to the Richmond International Airport.
According to KXAN, Stager is known in nearly seven states for his many offenses. He carries an extensive history of drug abuse, rape charges and sexual offenses, burglary, assault with deadly weapons, and mental health problems.
The sex offender is described to be a white or Hispanic man, about 145 pounds, 5 feet 8 inches tall with blond or strawberry hair. He is also "an admitted witch" according to court documents.
Stager was caught in Washington, D.C. at about 4 pm on Wednesday, while walking down the street near the D.C. Superior Court. He was spotted by two Metropolitan Police Department officers as the "on loose sex offender" the marshals were looking for, and was later taken into custody without incident.
The marshals also believe that Stager was possibly in the Hampton Roads area or recently travelled through the region before he was captured. However, the sex offender has no specific ties to the area, WAVY reported.
Stager originally pleaded guilty to charges of indecency with a child in North Carolina in 1999. He never updated his sex offender registration.
Authorities said he lived as a transient over the next few years and wasn't apprehended until December 2012 in Bowling Green, Virginia. Stager was then extradited to Austin, Texas, where he pleaded guilty to violating the Adam Walsh Act and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in federal prison.
Stager is currently taken under the custody of U.S. Marshals in Washington D.C. The sex offender will soon be transferred to Richmond to be faced with charges over the escape.
