Fugitive arrested after 18 years on the run

You snooze, you go back to jail.

After 18 years on the run, a man who already served prison time for a 1979 armed robbery in Columbia Falls was caught when he fell asleep.

Acrel Lindon Hinson was convicted by a jury on June 4, 1980. He was arrested near Helena on Saturday as he slept in his car.

William Rice was the foreman of Hinson's jury. He remembers that Hinson's defense included a time-dated Kalispell restaurant receipt that Hinson maintained proved he couldn't have been in Columbia Falls during the robbery at a Circle K convenience store.

"But others drove it and there was time," Rice said.

The two or three clerks at the store gave a description that an artist used to draw the robber.

"She drew a picture that looked like a photograph of [Hinson]," Rice said. "It was uncanny.

"It was quite easy" for the jury to convict him, he said.

On June 25, 1980, the late District Judge Robert Sykes sentenced Hinson to 25 years in prison, with all but six years suspended. Hinson served his term and was released after serving a few years with credit for good time, subject to rules of parole for the remainder of his 25-year sentence.

He complied for a while with the requirements to stay in contact with his supervision officer and to not change his place of residence without permission.

He had permission to go to Missouri in July 1985, and then to go to California to find a job. He reportedly went to New Jersey without permission on that trip. From California, he had permission to go to Alabama in January 1986, but never returned. Hinson's girlfriend reported that he called her once to say he was living in Texas.

In May 1986, former Deputy County Attorney Tom Esch filed a petition to revoke Hinson's suspended sentence. If he was returned to court and found guilty of probation violation, he could face the entire 25-year sentence for robbery.

A nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest. But Hinson had vanished.

For all his travels after parole, Hinson was only 250 miles from the Flathead County jail when he was arrested.

At about 8:30 Saturday evening, the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office got a call about a man "sleeping in a car at the trailhead of Mount Helena," Sgt. Dave Peterson said.

A deputy went to check on the man. He noticed North Dakota license plates and asked for the man's identification. The name Acrel Lindon Hinson came up flagged as a man wanted in the National Crime Information Center.

Officers returned him to Flathead County on Tuesday.

Hinson will find things changed since his last voyage through the court system.

District Judge Sykes has died, and Hinson's first prosecutor, Ted Lympus, has become a judge. The courtroom where he was tried and the jail where he was held have moved a block or so south on Main Street into a different justice center.

There is some symmetry to Hinson's case, though. It was 25 years ago this month since the robbery happened.

It was nearly 25 years ago that Hinson was charged with the armed robbery and sentenced to 25 years in prison. If he had served his entire probationary sentence, he would have been completely emancipated next June.

Now, he may have to start all over.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com