NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - A man who escaped from a Minnesota federal prison in 1992 and had been on the run ever since was taken back into custody last month after trying to renew his driver's license.
Investigators from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles withheld 64-year-old Robert Frederick Nelson's driver's license after facial recognition technology showed the same person had previously held a Nevada driver's license in the name of Craig James Pautler.
Investigators dug deeper and found Nelson had a string of felony convictions under both names and arrested him June 20. Authorities call Nelson "a violent criminal with a long rap sheet."
Nelson was released into custody of the U.S. Marshals. He will serve the remainder of the sentence and additional time for his escape 25 years ago from the Federal Medical Center prison in Rochester, Minnesota. The Nevada charges were dismissed to facilitate the extradition back to Minnesota.