Sex offender who fled Fort Worth halfway house gets life in prison

A violent sex offender who led authorities on a two-day manhunt after he walked away from a halfway house in March 2015 was sentenced Thursday to four life terms in prison.

Charles Raymond Sprague, 45, was serving time at a Fort Worth halfway house in the 6000 block of North Henderson Street when he cut off his tracking device and disappeared, according to authorities.

Sprague was living in the halfway house because he was placed in the state’s civil commitment program after he served prison sentences for previous crimes.

Prosecutors presented evidence this week that Sprague is a violent, habitual felon.

“Because of the brave testimony of these four women victimized by the defendant, countless others will be saved from the terror Charles Sprague forced them to endure,” prosecutor Page Simpson said.

Sprague had served two prison sentences since 1991, one for aggravated sexual assault and the other for aggravated kidnapping/sexual abuse.

The sentences assessed Wednesday were for violating his civil commitment, kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and robbery.

The four life sentences will be served concurrently and were handed down in state District Judge Robb Catalano’s court.

One of the criteria for being admitted in the state’s civil commitment program is that the offender is found by a forensic psychologist to have a psychological abnormality that made it likely he would offend again. Prosecutors presented evidence that Sprague met those criteria.

After Sprague left the halfway house, he kidnapped a woman at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her, according to an indictment. A separate indictment accused Sprague of forcing the woman to give him oral sex after threatening her at gunpoint.

“Charles Sprague was every woman’s worst nightmare,” prosecutor Dawn Ferguson said. “He’s one of the worst of the worst; a man who could not be fixed or rehabilitated. We are very thankful that the jury saw him for what he is and sent him away for good.”

Sprague was arrested at WinStar Casino in Thackerville, Okla., two days after he left the halfway house, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety official.

The civil commitment program was created in 1999 for inmates who have served their prison sentences for sex offenses but were found to have a “behavioral abnormality” that would make them likely to commit more crimes. They were ordered into supervised housing and treatment. The initial hope of legislators was that intensive treatment would eventually enable the former inmates to function independently.

Of the more than 380 ex-convicts assigned to the program during its 15-year history, only one has been released from the program because he completed treatment, according to reporting by the Houston Chronicle.

Last fall, all civilly committed offenders were moved from halfway houses across the state to a former private prison in Littlefield, a town about 40 miles northwest of Lubbock. It took months for the state to find a community that was willing to accept the more than 200 inmates in the program.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Sex offender who fled Fort Worth halfway house gets life in prison."