Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 19, 1993 TAG: 9309190093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But Michael Hampton Sonner, 25, may not have needed to be on the lam when he escaped to Virginia last week. A woman who identified herself as his sister told the Roanoke Times & World-News that Sonner recently turned down an offer of parole, only months before he escaped from his work-release assignment sorting garbage.
"He just felt like nobody wanted him," said the woman, who would not give her name for publication.
Computer records at the Davidson County Correctional Center, a minimum-security facility south of Greensboro, N.C., confirm Sonner would have been eligible for parole May 23. However, records were not available Saturday showing whether that parole was granted.
Sonner, who had been incarcerated since 1991 on breaking and entering charges, gave Montana police an alias when they surrounded him at the Greyhound stop in Butte, police say.
Capt. John Walsh, of the Butte Silver-Bow Law Enforcement Agency, said he and three investigators moved in on a man matching Sonner's description as he stepped off the bus about 10 a.m.
When asked to identify himself, the man first mumbled the name "Sonner," then gave his name as David McKnight, Walsh said. He is sticking to that name but has been arrested and charged as Sonner - based on identification made through fingerprints and a physical description that includes a tattoo - and is being held without bail in the Butte Silver-Bow County jail.
He did not try to flee police and was arrested without incident, Walsh said.
"He really didn't even see us coming toward him," he said. "I just don't think he felt there was any threat for him in Butte, Montana."
Walsh said police acted on a tip from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department that Sonner would be on the bus, which was headed for Seattle. The man's ticket indicated he was heading for Moses Lake, Wash., and that he had gotten on the bus in Chicago.
Authorities in Chicago searched for Sonner on a bus that stopped there Thursday, also finding a man who matched his description. But police said it was not the same man, so they shifted their search back to Virginia and West Virginia.
Police began searching for Sonner in West Virginia after the truck of a Montgomery County woman he is suspected of raping turned up in Bluefield. Sonner is suspected of stealing the woman's truck, raping her and forcing her to drive to a Blacksburg bank and withdraw $1,000.
The woman, who identified Sonner from a photograph faxed by North Carolina authorities, said she was held captive in her home Tuesday night, then raped Wednesday morning and left tied up in her eastern Montgomery County home.
Police have been looking for Sonner since he escaped Tuesday morning from the Davie County Landfill Recycling Center - about an hour southwest of Greensboro, N.C. - where he and 18 other inmates were working.
The woman who identified herself as his sister said Sonner was one of six children bounced between family members all of their lives. She said he has not contacted his family since May and had no relatives in Washington state.
"He needs help, he does," she said. "I was hoping he'd get picked up. We were afraid he wouldn't give up his weapon."
Sonner, who had a knife when he was arrested, is being held on escape and armed-robbery charges. Police did not find the gun he is accused of using in the Montgomery County robbery. Walsh said other charges stemming from the Montgomery County incident are pending.
by CNB