U.S. fugitive found 16 years later

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- A Canadian-born man living in Manitoba has been identified as a fugitive who escaped from a prison in South Dakota 16 years ago, police said.

An extradition hearing is scheduled Thursday in Winnipeg for Clifford Laframboise, 42, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Laframboise has also used the name Clifford Thomas.

Cpl. Grant Smith of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in an affidavit he discovered Laframboise, who was living in Jackhead, a community on Lake Winnipeg about 200 miles north of the city, received a traffic ticket last March and was charged with sexual assault in November without police realizing he was wanted in the United States. Laframboise was released on bail but later surrendered after an extradition warrant was issued.

Laframboise pleaded guilty in 1988 to burglary in South Dakota and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. When he escaped from an annex of South Dakota State Prison in Sioux Falls, he was about five years away from parole.

If he is returned to South Dakota, he would have to serve 7 1/2 more years on his original sentence and could face new charges for the escape.