
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 5, 1994                   TAG: 9407050079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PETERSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

HOSPITAL PATIENT RECAPTURED

State troopers recaptured a Central State Hospital patient who escaped by climbing a fence.

Stephen Dalton, 24, of Chester left the Dinwiddie County hospital about 1:20 p.m. Saturday, state police said.

Sgt. Jim DeFord said troopers received a tip and found Dalton about 12:20 a.m. Sunday in Colonial Heights.

Dalton was returned to the hospital.

Dalton was at the state-run hospital for an evaluation after a domestic dispute last month in Wilmington, N.C., state police said.

Dalton was the third person to escape from the hospital since April. John T. Midgette, who was committed there after being found innocent of killing his boss by reason of insanity, walked away April 23. He was recaptured five weeks later in North Carolina.

A 17-year-old boy awaiting trial escaped May 21 by slipping through a gap in a fence. He was recaptured the same day.

- Associated Press

by CNB