May 29, 2009 in News

Watchful reader helps nab escapee

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A newspaper reader helped nab a Montana Department of Corrections escapee accused of a Spokane Valley burglary, according to Crime Stoppers.

James R. Clemons, 62, was arrested at a Colville coffee shop Friday after a patron matched him with a mug shot in a newspaper article, a news release said.

Surveillance video caught a man police say is Clemons stealing money last month from an office at Hico, 1201 N. Barker Road.

Clemons, who was born in Spokane, faces 10 years in prison for walking away from a private release center in Butte, Mont., last September, according to the DOC, and is also wanted on a first-degree theft charge in Snohomish County.

He has a 40-year criminal history that includes convictions for theft in Stevens County and grand larceny in Spokane County, records show.

He was first imprisoned in Montana in 1990 for forgery and bail jumping.

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