The Georgia inmate serving a life sentence who was mistakenly released from prison last week has been captured in Kentucky, the state department of corrections said late Wednesday.
Tony Maycon Munoz-Mendez, 31, was apprehended in Fort Thomas around 10:30 p.m. by the corrections department fugitive unit, a U.S. Marshals task force and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Georgia Department of Corrections tweeted.
Munoz-Mendez was “released in error” from Rogers State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia, around 11:30 a.m. Friday, the department said in a statement Monday. That statement did not explain how the mistake occurred.
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Munoz-Mendez was convicted of two counts of rape in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison.
John Warr, the prosecutor who handled the case in Gwinnett County, told NBC affiliate WXIA of Atlanta this week that the case involved a 10-year-old daughter of Munoz-Mendez ‘s girlfriend at the time.
Munoz-Mendez molested and raped the child, and the abuse spanned several years, beginning in 2010, Warr said.
Munoz-Mendez insisted during his trial that he was innocent, according to the station.
Fort Thomas is a city of around 16,000 around 500 miles north of Reidsville and is across the Ohio River from the Cincinnati area. More details about how and where he was apprehended were not immediately released.