Court rejects former New London man's appeal of 24-year-old violation
HARTFORD (AP) — The state Appellate Court has rejected the appeal of a man who says he shouldn't have been sent back to prison 24 years after walking away from a supervised release program because the state didn't do enough to find him.
The court ruled Tuesday that the passage of time did not make the re-incarceration of Prince Lewis unfair.
The former New London resident had been transferred from prison, where he was serving a three-year sentence on drug charges, to the community release program when he stopped showing up to meetings with his parole officer in August 1989. He was found and extradited to Connecticut by New York authorities in December 2013.
Lewis' attorneys say Connecticut should have tracked him down earlier. They argued he could have been found through "reasonable diligence." He was arrested 15 times during his absence in Illinois, Maryland and New York and was convicted of seven crimes, including three felonies.
The court noted that Lewis had used four names during those 24 years and lived in as many as nine residences. He also used five birthdates and two Social Security numbers.
Since filing his appeal, he has finished serving the remainder of his prison sentence. The court ruled his appeal wasn't moot, however, because he remains on parole.
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