CDCR Investigators Track Down Escapee From 1977

SACRAMENTO – Michael R. Morrow, 70, who escaped from a California state prison in 1977, was apprehended on September 23 in Garland County, Arkansas, said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

CDCR’s Special Service Unit, assisted by the department’s Criminal Intelligence and Analysis Unit, developed new leads in the 36-year-old case. Morrow had been using the alias Carl Frank Wilson and agents located his whereabouts in Arkansas.

CDCR agents requested an Unlawful Flight to Avoid Confinement warrant from federal authorities. The FBI in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Garland County Sheriff’s Department arrested Morrow without incident at a residence in Jessieville, Arkansas.

Morrow had escaped from California Institution for Men in Chino on August 27, 1977. He was four years into a five-years-to-life sentence from Los Angeles County for two counts of first-degree robbery with the use of a firearm.

Morrow is currently in the Garland County Jail. CDCR has begun the process to extradite Morrow back to its custody to finish serving his sentence. CDCR will also refer the case to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.

Between 1977 and 2012, 98.5 percent of all CDCR escapees have been apprehended.