Madonna’s ‘psychotic’ stalker apprehended

Washington: A man, who was convicted of threatening to kill Madonna was arrested on Friday, after he escaped from a Los Angeles-area mental hospital last week. Police said in a statement that Robert Dewey Hoskins was apprehended shortly before 9 am in Long Beach, where authorities believed he might have fled following his escape from the Metropolitan State Hospital in nearby Norwalk.

Initially, Los Angeles police said Hoskins was caught near the hospital where he escaped last Friday, a news channel has reported. He had been committed there last year and was returned to the facility after his arrest. Police did not comment about how Hoskins escaped or where he had been over the past week. Hoskins, 54, served a 10-year prison sentence for stalking and threatening Madonna after being convicted by a jury in 1996. The 53-year-old singer reluctantly testified against the man, who was shot by her personal security after he jumped the fence of her 25,000-square-foot (2,300 square meters) Hollywood Hills home. Hoskins had told the singer’s assistants he would either marry Madonna or slash her throat from ear to ear. At trial, the Material Girl said she felt sick to her stomach that she was in the same room as Hoskins and had nightmares about him chasing her. She said that she was in Miami when she received a call, hearing that her bodyguard shot Hoskins. Police asked for the public’s help on Thursday in locating Hoskins. They said he is “highly psychotic” and can be extremely violent but didn’t elaborate on it. ANI