FBI Arrests Man Believed to Be an Escaped Murderer

FBI agents arrested a man in Costa Mesa Friday who escaped from a Virginia prison almost seven years ago while serving a 20-year sentence for murder, authorities said.

Daryle Bean Mayhugh, 35, was arrested near the intersection of Fairview Road and Baker Street about 4 p.m., Richard T. Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement released Friday.

Mayhugh escaped from a prison in Rustburg, Va., about 100 miles west of Richmond, in September of 1981, Bretzing said. He was serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder. Details about the case were not immediately available Friday night.

Last month, authorities filed a criminal complaint in a U.S. District Court in Virginia, after they obtained information indicating that Mayhugh had fled the state to avoid capture, a federal offense, Bretzing said.

Authorities would not disclose what led them to Mayhugh in Costa Mesa, how long he has been in Orange County or what he was doing here.

When agents stopped his car and confronted him Friday, Mayhugh, who was unarmed, denied his identity, claiming to be Jason Lee Stevens, one of his aliases, Bretzing said. But his fingerprints matched those of the man who fled the Rustburg prison in 1981, and he was booked into Orange County Jail without bail.

Mayhugh is due to appear before a federal magistrate Monday, after which he could be returned to Virginia for prosecution, Bretzing said.