Update: Madonna's Stalker Arrested in Long Beach

4:25 p.m. Update includes hospital and Sheriff's Dept. comment:

An escaped mental patient once convicted of stalking and threatening to slash the throat of pop star Madonna was captured today in Long Beach, a week after he walked away from a psychiatric hospital in Norwalk.

Robert Dewey Hoskins, 54, was taken into custody about 8:50 a.m. and was returned to the Metropolitan State Hospital, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

"He was not armed," Long Beach police spokeswoman Lisa Massacani said.

``Hoskins, prior to his escape, had made comments to hospital staff that led the Long Beach Police Department to believe that he may have fled to the North Long Beach area after his escape,'' according to a police department statement. ``All patrol officers were briefed in detail in regards to ... Hoskins, and were actively searching for him while patrolling the city. ``

Authorities Thursday had sought the public's help in locating Hoskins, who was described as "highly psychotic" and violent. But Long Beach police said Friday that patrol officers took him into custody with no trouble.

"This morning, officers in the area of South Street and Cherry Avenue in Long Beach saw a male subject matching the physical description of Hoskins walking down the street,'' the department statement said. ``Officers made contact with (him) ... and took him into custody without incident or injury.''

Spokeswoman Massacani said she did not know exactly what was at the arrest location but "the area of Cherry and South Street is kind of an industrial-slash-commercial area, with a couple of large apartment complexes not far from there."

Hoskins, who once scaled a wall around Madonna's Hollywood Hills estate and threatened to cut the singer's throat, was convicted in 1996 of stalking her and making terrorist threats. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and, after his release, was transferred to Atascadero State Hospital, where he was determined to be a ``mentally disturbed offender,'' according to police.

About a year after he was released from Atascadero, Hoskins ``had an additional police contact in July 2011 that resulted in his arrest and eventually being placed in Metropolitan State Hospital on a civil commitment,'' the Los Angeles Police Department reported. Huffington Post reported that court records indicate his July, 2011 arrest was for vandalism. He was committed to the state mental hospital about a year ago, Huffington Post reported. Police did not disclose the reason for his arrest in July 2011.

Alonzo Townsell, acting public information officer of Metropolitan State Hospital, issued a statement about the case.

``On Friday, Feb. 3, 2012, a patient left the grounds of Metropolitan State Hospital without authorization,'' Townsell said in a statement. ``MSH police department immediately notified the city of Norwalk's office of public safety, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol. MSH cannot release any specific information about patients due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Safety and security remain a top priority at Metropolitan State Hospital.''

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said his agency immediately began looking for Hoskins, and also notified other law enforcement agencies that Hoskins was at large.

During Hoskins' trial in 1996, Madonna testified against him, telling jurors she had recurring nightmares after seeing the homeless drifter from Oregon near her home in April 1995. She said her bodyguard told her that the man claimed ``he was there to take me away ... that I was supposed to be his wife, that if he couldn't have me, he was going to slice my throat from ear to ear.''

Hoskins returned to the property a month later -- when Madonna was in Florida -- and scaled the perimeter wall, jumped into her pool and was eventually shot twice by a security guard. Hoskins is highly psychotic when not taking his medication and has ``very violent tendencies,'' according to police.

This morning, the Long Beach Police Department's Mental Evaluation Team was summoned to the arrest location, took custody of Hoskins and returned him to  Metropolitan State Hospital, releasing him into their custody.

To see Hoskins in court: http://patch.com/bvaSp

-City News Service contributed to this report.