
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 22, 1993                   TAG: 9309220241
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

ESCAPEE'S BUS JOURNEY ENDED EARLY

Michael Hampton Sonner said he knew generally what direction he wanted his life to go in after escaping from prison last week: south.

The Davidson Correctional Center inmate escaped Sept. 14 and planned to complete a cross-country bus trip to Washington, then head south to Mexico and on to South America. He got as far as Butte, Mont., where he was captured Saturday when he stepped off the Greyhound bus for a cigarette.

Sonner, 25, in a telephone interview with the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, said he already had tired of being a fugitive.

"I gave up. I let them catch me," he said. "The bus had many different stops. I could have gotten off. I could have bought a plane ticket. I knew running wouldn't solve my problems."

Sonner, imprisoned on a breaking and entering conviction, walked away from a work detail in Davie County. He is suspected of robbing and sexually assaulting a Montgomery County, Va., woman before heading west.

by CNB