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Ramone Jamarr Alston, the “Christmas Day Killer” who escaped custody Tuesday morning and ran off into the woods near UNC Hillsborough Hospital, has been recaptured in Kannapolis, North Carolina, authorities said.
Tactical officers arrested him at a hotel on Cloverleaf Parkway around 2 a.m. Friday, according to investigators.
That is more than 100 miles to the west of where he escaped.
“Alston will be charged with felony escape from prison, and is being taken to a high security unit in the state prison system,” a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Adult Correction said in a statement. “There he will resume serving his life sentence for first degree murder and await court appearances for his escape charges.”
Police also arrested a female acquaintance of Alston, Jacobia Crisp, in Alamance County on charges of aiding and abetting a fugitive. Investigators were looking into whether he had help from anyone else and said more charges could be possible.
NORTH CAROLINA MANHUNT LAUNCHED FOR CONVICTED MURDERER WHO ESCAPED ON WAY TO HOSPITAL: SHERIFF
Alston, 30, was serving a life sentence for the murder of 1-year-old Maleah Williams, who died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head during a drive-by shooting.
Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood said earlier this week that he grew up with the escapee’s father and has known him for a long time.
“He was a troubled child, and he’s been involved in criminal activity since he was a juvenile,” he told reporters during a Wednesday morning briefing streamed on Facebook. “He’s extremely cagey. He’s extremely dangerous. And he has nothing to lose.”
Alston was at the wheel and one of two gunmen in a drive-by shooting in Chapel Hill in 2015, according to the News & Observer. They opened fire in an apartment complex, and one of the bullets struck Maleah in the back of her head as her mother held her in her arms.
