After almost four years of waiting to have him in custody, Hale County deputies finally arrested rape suspect Courtney A. Paige on charges stemming from 2002.

Paige, a 26-year-old Homewood resident, had been in and out of Hale County, making it hard for officers to find a moment to arrest him, when finally three deputies were able to capture the fugitive Thursday, April 27, outside of Newbern.

“We had some old warrants on him since sometime in 2002. He’s left the county and been in and out since then,” Hale County Sheriff Larry Johnson said. “We almost caught him last year at a Sunshine football game, but when the deputy told him he was under arrest, he ran.”

Deputies weren’t able to catch him that day, but were on the look out for him with a warning from Johnson that if he was seen, to be ready for a chase.

So, when deputies Calier Agnew, Lloyd Eicher and Enoch Rose were returning from a training session in Selma and spotted Paige, they were prepared to get a run for their money.

“The deputies knew they would have to chase him,” Johnson said, “but they were able to get him in a position and block him in really quickly.”

Although Paige initially faced charges of failing to pay child support, third-degree escape for the Sunshine incident, a prior charge for third-degree theft and a prior second-degree rape charge, Johnson said the child support case had been dropped previous to the arrest.

According to Johnson, Paige faces anywhere from three to 30 years if convicted of the escape and rape alone, including two to 20 for the rape and one to 10 for the escape.