Escaped convict captured after 33 years

Escaped convict captured after 33 years - Yahoo! News:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A convicted murderer who escaped from a work release program 33 years ago was captured in Alabama, where he had been working construction jobs using his real name, U.S. Marshals announced Saturday.

Billy Wayne Hayes, 57, was arrested by marshals and police Friday night at a gas station in Dothan, Ala., nearly 350 miles from Nashville, where he had been imprisoned.

Hayes was sentenced in 1968 to serve 10 years at the Tennessee State Prison for second-degree murder in the shooting death of William Howard Ferguson, a Nashville paint contractor. He was assigned to a work release program and never returned after signing out for work on Dec. 21, 1972.

Tennessee Department of Corrections spokeswoman Dorinda Carter said Hayes' case was so old that information on it was not in the department's current computer system and would not be available until Monday.

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