BRISTOL, Tenn. – A 24-year-old violent sexual predator was arrested Wednesday afternoon, after authorities found him hiding in the back of an SUV in a trailer park near Bristol.
Warren Dale Wright, of Caney Valley Road, Bristol, Va., was convicted in August in Washington County, Va., for carnal knowledge of a child between 13 and 15 years old.
He was wanted by the Virginia State Police for skipping probation and failing to reregister as a sex offender. Wright is listed as a violent predator.
The U.S. Marshals Service has taken the lead in tracking interstate sex offenders since the Adam Walsh Act was enacted in 2006, according to a news release from the agency. Marshals headquartered in Abingdon cover the 17 western counties of Virginia.
Deputy Marshal Byron L. Schiesz said they learned Wright was traveling with a teenage girl in an old, red Chevy Blazer. They set up surveillance at the Sullivan County trailer where the teenager’s grandmother lives, and saw the Blazer pull in around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Schiesz said Wright is known among law enforcement as a “rabbit,” someone with a tendency to run from police. So when they blocked him in, with nowhere to run, he crawled down behind the driver’s seat and tried to blend in with the floor board.
According to the Virginia court system’s online database, Wright pleaded guilty to the May 2008 felony charge and was sentenced to 10 years with all but three months suspended. He was to be on probation for three years.
Wright was taken to the Sullivan County Jail to await extradition back to Virginia.
He is the ninth fugitive sex offender the regional U.S. Marshals task force has arrested in 2009. Convictions for the others range from aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy to crimes against nature and child molestation.
“When you have a guy show up on the registry and he’s not in compliance, that’s a threat to your family and my family,” Schiesz said. “As long as they’re in compliance, the chances of reoffending is minimal. But the recidivism rate of sex offenders is extremely high. So when these guys up and decide, ‘hey, I’m not going to follow the rules,’ we’ve got a real problem.”
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531
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