Prison escapee Armin Christian caught in R.I. after 32 years

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Armin Christian in 1980 (left), and now.

/ WLTX

(CBS/AP) PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island police have arrested a man they say escaped from a South Carolina prison on Christmas Day over 30 years ago.

State police said Thursday that authorities are taking 65-year-old Armin Christian back to South Carolina. He was arraigned in District Court in Providence on Wednesday.

Christian had been living in Bristol. He was arrested and charged with escaping a correctional facility.

A South Carolina prisons spokesman says Christian walked away from the now defunct Piedmont Work Center near Greenville on Christmas Day in 1980.

He was sentenced to 11 months in prison in November 1980 for domestic non-payment of child support.

Rhode Island State Police Capt. Michael Winquist says Christian told authorities that he was trying to straighten out matters in South Carolina.

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by greggb1950 May 27, 2012 4:27 PM EDT: He'll get a lawyer and the escape thing will be a slap on the wrist. He'll have to pay back child support and when he has that done the escape charge will probably be dropped; Reply to this comment

by eddiethekid May 27, 2012 2:12 AM EDT

Please, this must be some kind of joke. Do you mean to tell me they're going to extradite a man for non-payment of child support 32 years later? Somebody has got their priorities confused.

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by Well_You_Aint_Me May 27, 2012 9:01 AM EDT: No. He was serving time for non-payment. He is being arrested now for escaping a correctional facility.

One is a misdemeanor and the other a felony.


by rubberrezi May 26, 2012 11:47 AM EDT: If he has stayed out of trouble save the money and let him go.; Reply to this comment


by nojoy01 May 26, 2012 7:38 AM EDT: Let's see, he was sentenced to ll months for back child-support. He had 10 months left to serve. Escape from any state "correctional facility" in any state of the union is a felony. So he traded l0 months for 30+ years of "looking over his shoulder". Then he got caught. So now he gets to serve out the rest of his sentence, plus probably about 5 years for the felenoy escape. Knock everything down for parole & he's still got about 2 1/2 years to do. Add in that he probably won't get to count the 30+ years of Social Security tax paid in & it begins to look like this clown never was playing with a full deck.; Reply to this comment


by solo_boatie May 25, 2012 7:08 PM EDT: I think SC ought to build a new prison to house this person then lay on a caterer to feed him, and a laundry to clean his uniforms. Think of the jobs that will create! NOT!

Let him go free and write it off as a lesson not well learned. Probably why the prison is now defunct anyway, lmao!; Reply to this comment