Defendant who bolted from Wilson courtroom during trial caught in Florida
A man who fled from Wilson County last month during his trial on attempted murder charges has been apprehended in Florida, authorities said Friday.
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Deonta Earl Bridgers, 31, was arrested Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla., on a fugitive warrant. There was no word on when he would be returned to North Carolina.
Bridgers was on trial and failed to return to court following a lunch break on April 13. He had been on house arrest and wasn't in custody.
Wilson County deputies found his electronic monitoring device at a dilapidated house, but there was no trace of him.
The jury convicted him in absentia the following day.
In November 2015, Devon Shamark Crooms vanished during a lunch break in his trial in Wilson County. A jury convicted him in absentia on charges stemming from two shooting deaths in 2011. Crooms was captured in Florida after seven months on the run.
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