Convict Escapee Found in Santa Monica Gets 8 More Months

A convicted burglar who was captured three weeks after walking out of jail was sentenced today to eight more months behind bars.

Christopher Lee Brown, 37, of Alhambra, escaped from a downtown Los Angeles jail facility on March 12, hours after being sentenced to nearly five years in county jail for his March 6 conviction on two counts of second-degree commercial burglary and one count of receiving stolen property.

Brown posed as another inmate and walked out of the facility undetected, according to Deputy District Attorney Colby Cano.

County officials said a $20,000 reward prompted a tip that helped authorities track down Brown, who was recaptured April 2 in Santa Monica after being seen outside the Pico Youth and Family Center near the intersection of Pico and Lincoln boulevards.

Brown was convicted of breaking into the AHMC Healthcare facility in Alhambra last October and December and stealing two computers and three flash drives. As a result of the thefts, 729,000 patients' identifying information, as well as financial and credit information was jeopardized, according to the District Attorney's Office.

On April 17, Brown pleaded no contest to an escape charge. The eight- month sentence will be tacked on to his prison sentence in the burglary case, and Brown will now serve the entire time in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.

--City News Service