GOT HIM

Killer Who Escaped Max-Security Hospital Is Captured in a Texas Park

Alexander Ervin, 29, had been committed to a psychiatric facility after being found not guilty of murdering his father by reason of insanity.

Exactly two weeks after he escaped a maximum-security hospital in Vernon, Texas, police arrested 29-year-old Alexander Ervin on Sunday, ending the hunt for the man who was acquitted of killing his dad in 2013 due to insanity. Ervin’s mom, Leslie Ervin, said that he was “peacefully arrested” in Austin—about 350 miles south of Vernon—after locals spotted him in a park and, worried about heatstroke, called the police. Police said Ervin escaped on June 26 by hopping an eight-foot fence, but his mom questions that account, saying there is meant to be more extensive security at the facility, including guards. “That sounds like gross incompetence to me, that a mentally ill, dangerous man is allowed to walk out of a facility that has been tasked to protect him,” she said. Leslie said she was told her son had gone to the park in Austin as it was close to her old apartment. “He asked for new clothes when he got to the jail, and told police he had come to Austin looking for me,” she told CBS.