Oregon fugitive arrested in Macon, Georgia, after escaping from prison in 1994

GEORGIA (WJBF) – An Oregon fugitive who escaped a prison work assignment in 1994 was arrested in Macon, Georgia.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, 70-year-old Steven Craig Johnson, aka William Cox, was serving a prison sentence for sexual abuse and sodomy and escaped from a prison work assignment on November 29, 1994.

Authorities said Johnson had been living in Macon since 2011 under the alias William Cox while he was wanted on an Oregon warrant for his arrest for being a fugitive.

According to investigators, it was discovered that Johnson had stolen the identity of a child who had died in Texas in January 1962. He was able to obtain a copy of the child’s birth certificate and eventually obtained a social security number in Texas in 1995. He also initially received a
Georgia driver’s license, 1998.

Authorities say Johnson was taken into custody by the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force at around 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16, at an apartment complex on Vineville Avenue in Macon.

According to the US Marshal Service, the case was taken over by the USMS in 2015 at the request of the Oregon Department of Corrections.