California man indicted for breaking out of federal prison 8 years ago

A 55-year-old fugitive who had been on the run for eight years after escaping from a federal prison in California has been caught and indicted, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the state’s eastern district.

A federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment on Thursday against Eric Pree of San Francisco, charging him with escape from custody, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said in a news release.

According to Talbert’s office, Pree was convicted on federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in 2012. He was sentenced to a year and five months.

Pree had been serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary Atwater until Jan. 29, 2017, when he was discovered missing from the facility.

“Pree did not have permission to leave the Atwater facility and remained at large until his arrest” nearly two months ago, Talbert’s office states in its news release.

In October, investigators found Pree in the city of Walnut Creek in California and arrested him there.

At the time of his arrest, authorities said Pree had several cellphones and identification cards as well as debit and credit cards in different peoples’ names. He also had multiple driver’s licenses and a fake Harvard University student ID.

Pree is back in federal custody to serve the remainder of his original sentence as he faces an additional charge for his prison escape. The maximum statutory penalty for this crime is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

But Pree’s final sentence “will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which takes into account a number of variables,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in California’s eastern district.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cody S. Chapple is expected to prosecute the case, which is the product of an investigation by the Department of State and the U.S. Marshals Service.