Police nab man on the lam for 34 years

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PASADENA, Calif., March 14 (UPI) -- A man who ran a California rehab center using the name John Edward Heard was arrested as Richard Bradford, a convicted murderer who fled parole, police said.

Bradford and his wife were arrested Sunday after they were seen leaving their Pasadena home, KCAL-TV, Los Angeles, reported Wednesday. The couple were followed to a Home Depot and taken into custody after they got out of their vehicle.

Bradford's wife told KCAL the charges against her husband were unfounded.

Bradford is a convicted murderer who skipped out on parole more than three decades ago, police said. He was convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree attempted robbery in 1971, in the killing of a San Jose convenience store employee. He was sentenced to life in prison but was released on parole after seven years.

Bradford was classified a parolee at large in 1980. Officials said he changed his identity and assumed a fake Social Security number.

Investigators learned in early 2011 Heard owned several properties in the Pasadena area, including a drug rehab facility. Bradford's attorney asked that his client be given time to surrender, but he never did, KCAL said.

Authorities said they spent the next two years trying to find him after he transferred his properties into a trust and put his credit cards and vehicles in the name of the treatment center.