Sex offender who fled Arlington halfway house sentenced to 5 years

DALLAS — An Everett sex offender who cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled to Texas was sentenced Friday to five years in prison and a lifetime of supervision by corrections officers.

U.S. Marshals captured Eric Eugene Hartwell, 47, last year near Dallas. Hartwell was released from a Washington prison March 13, 2009, after serving time for failing to register as a sex offender. He was ordered to live at a halfway house in Arlington and wear a global positioning system tracking bracelet.

A week after he got out of prison, Hartwell cut off his leg monitor and fled the state.

Authorities tracked him to Carrollton, Texas, a city near Dallas. He attempted but failed to outrun a U.S. Marshal fugitive apprehension task force.

He pleaded guilty in November to failing to register as a sex offender. A federal judge in Texas on Friday doubled the standard sentence for Hartwell. She also ordered that he be supervised for the rest of his life.

Hartwell’s criminal history includes a 1991 conviction for molesting a 6-year-old and the attempted rape of a 15-year-old hitchhiker in 1995.