Greg Lawson was arrested in Mexico after over 30 years as a fugitive from Louisiana. (Screenshots from 1991 from KSLA CBS affiliate in Shreveport; current mugshot from FBI)
A 63-year-old fugitive who fled the courthouse just as a jury in Louisiana was returning to the courtroom to convict him of attempted murder more than three decades ago was captured in Mexico this week, authorities said.
Greg Lawson, 63, was arrested in Huatulco, Mexico — deported by Mexican officials for immigration violations — on Tuesday after agents in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Mexico coordinated with the FBI and Mexican immigration authorities, authorities said.
Video obtained by CBS Shreveport affiliate KTBS shows Lawson — escorted by law enforcement — walking off a plane at a Houston airport on Wednesday, where he was met by Louisiana authorities who handcuffed him.
“There is no doubt that Mr. Lawson might still be in the wind if our partners in Mexico had not been willing to deal with this so swiftly,” said Douglas A. Williams, Jr., the Special Agent in Charge of FBI New Orleans, in a news release.
The case dates to 1991. CBS Shreveport affiliate KSLA reported that Lawson was about to be convicted of trying to kill a man named Seth Garlington, described as his longtime rival, in a shootout in the town of Ringgold.
Lawson was indicted but took off before a jury found him guilty of attempted second-degree murder in 1991, the FBI said.
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The FBI launched a manhunt in May 1991. Throughout the years, agents chased leads based on tips and alleged sightings, but the agency long suspected he had fled to Mexico.
In 2007, when the FBI announced a $10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts, KSLA published a news report quoting a then-hopeful sounding FBI Supervising Resident Agent Mike Kinder, “I think it’s going to be very valuable these calls they placed to us.”
“If a citizen calls in with information, we take it seriously,” he said, the station reported. “We follow up on that lead as far as the lead will take us.”
But it wasn’t until earlier this month that the FBI New Orleans office received a tip that Lawson was in Mexico. The FBI did not disclose what led them to him.
“We want to thank our partners and the public in this case, who never gave up hope that justice could be served for Mr. Lawson’s victim,” Williams said.
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