LEWISTON – Fugitive Jesse Caron of Lewiston was captured Monday in California by a handicapped woman who clutched onto his pants and two construction workers sat on him after he allegedly stole her purse, police said. He was carrying his Maine ID card.
The 28-year-old Sabattus Street resident was arrested in Redlands, east of Los Angeles, said Chris Clifford, head of the Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force.
The arrest of Caron ends the second manhunt for him since the start of the year.
According to the Web site for “American’s Most Wanted,” the TV show that featured Caron twice in the past year, Caron was exiting an office supply store in Redlands at 7:15 a.m. Monday, as a 51-year-old handicapped woman was entering the store.
Police said when he passed her in the automatic doors, he violently tried to grab her purse from her left hand, the Web account stated.
The woman fought, but Caron overpowered her and ran toward a construction site under a freeway underpass with her purse. “Two construction workers saw the woman yelling that a man took her purse and went looking for him,” the Web site stated. “Within a few minutes they saw Caron hiding between two slabs of cement and looking through the purse,” the site attributed to police. “Soon, the woman caught up with the two construction workers and the three of them held Caron down until the police arrived.”
The Web site stated police believe Caron may have been staking out the handicapped spots in the parking lot to attack a woman.
It also stated he had gotten thinner and dyed is blonde hair dark since being on the run.
“He always kept it interesting,” Clifford said.
Police in Lewiston and other parts of New England have been searching for Caron after he allegedly jumped bail after the first search for him led to his capture on Valentine’s Day.
Now, police say Caron will be held in California before he is turned over to face charges in Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Police believe Caron hitchhiked to California as the search for him intensified in New England. When he was caught in Redlands, witnesses said he was with another man during the alleged purse snatching. The second man was not caught.
Caron is wanted on a slew of charges, including the robbery of an elderly woman at Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Conn., earlier this month.
In Lewiston, he is wanted on new charges of passing bad checks and violating conditions of bail. Those charges were handed up by an Androscoggin County grand jury last week, less than four months after a statewide manhunt led to his capture.
Caron has been a suspect in the Lewiston area since late last year, when police began investigating a party at which a young woman claimed she was drugged and raped.
When police searched Caron’s home, investigators said they found powdered and crack cocaine and an assault rifle. Drugs and weapons charges were filed against Caron and the manhunt began.
“I hope justice is served, and he gets the help that he needs,” said Rochelle Bard, the woman who claims Caron attacked her in October. “I can’t wait to see him in court. It’s something I have been waiting for for a long time now.”
After the attack, Caron was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
He was arrested Feb. 14 when federal agents spotted him slipping into a bar in Gray to ask his mother for money. Police said he had a .45-caliber handgun when he was captured. His girlfriend, 18-year-old Amber Smith, was arrested on a charge of hindering apprehension. She has since been released.
Days after his capture, a district court judge lowered Caron’s bail from $40,000 to $10,000. Caron posted that bail and has remained free since.
He still faces counts of aggravated trafficking in narcotics and of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Caron made a second appearance on “America’s Most Wanted” over the weekend. That was after he was spotted in Massachusetts and police renewed their efforts to catch up with him. The search has involved dozens of local, state and federal agencies, including the Lewiston-based Central Maine Violent Crimes Task Force.
Police expect Caron will be extradited to Maine, where he will be taken to the Cumberland County Jail in Portland.
“I hope that they keep a hold of him this time so that he doesn’t get the chance to run again,” said Bard. “And I hope he will come clean to every thing.”
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