California fugitive captured three decades after escaping FCI Dublin
A fugitive who fled a California prison over three decades ago was arrested by the U.S. Marshals earlier this month, authorities announced, about 150 miles away from where he escaped.
Ronald Keith Harvey, 79, was captured in Nevada City, California, by the U.S. Federal Marshal Fugitive Apprehension Team on June 12, according to a Facebook post by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office and county booking records. Harvey escaped from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, on Jan. 21, 1994, according to KTVU.
"There are some people who are better than others at absconding justice and just going on the run," Deputy U.S. Marshal Cruz Moya told KGO-TV.
Moya, who has been in charge of Harvey’s case since 2024, told SF Gate that the federal marshals found Harvey following a data sweep that led to an address associated with the escapee in Nevada City.
Paste BN reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service for a statement on June 17 and did not receive an immediate response.
Escapee had been serving time for marijuana operation
Moya told KTVU that Harvey was serving a 60-month sentence at FCI Dublin for manufacturing marijuana plants.
"He wasn't cultivating a small amount. He was arrested with 600-plus plants and firearms. So, it was a pretty big operation that he was running," Moya said to KGO.
Marshals told KGO-TV that Harvey has about four years left on his original sentence.
FCI Dublin was the prison where Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin served their sentences related to the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal. FCI Dublin closed in 2024 following an Associated Press report on alleged sexual abuse at the prison.