A man on the run for the past 32 years after being convicted of attempted murder has been apprehended in Mexico.
The New York Post stated that Greg Lawson, 63, could be seen grinning as he was detained and returned to US soil. He’s been on the run for half his life.
The FBI has been looking for Lawson since 1991 and has pursued several leads across the country over the past three decades, though the government has long assumed he had escaped to Mexico. The FBI’s New Orleans branch then received word early this month that Lawson was definitely in Mexico.
Shreveport agents, as well as those in Mexico, worked with FBI headquarters and Mexican immigration authorities to identify and apprehend Lawson. On September 19, he was apprehended in Huatulco, Mexico, and deported for immigration offenses.
“We want to thank our partners and the public in this case, who never gave up hope that justice could be served for Mr. Lawson’s victim,” Douglas A. Williams Jr., special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans, said in a statement. “There is no doubt that Mr. Lawson might still be in the wind if our partners in Mexico had not been willing to deal with this so swiftly.”
Lawson attempted to drive his boyhood friend Seth Garlington’s automobile off the road when he was 31 years old. The two wound up in a gas station parking lot, where they had a gunfight. Garlington recovered from his injuries, and Lawson was convicted, although he did not stay to hear the decision.
He ran, and his pickup was discovered about a block away from the Claiborne Parish Courthouse, where the trial was taking place. He was on the run for 32 years. According to KTBS, the FBI began offering a $10,000 reward for information on his location in 2007.
Lawson was born into a notable family in Bienville Parish and was said to have gotten away with past crimes because of his family’s influence.
Deputies from the Bienville Sheriff’s Office traveled to Houston, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon to pick up Lawson at the airport. They will then transport him to the Claiborne Parish Detention Center.
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