LOS ANGELES — A Richmond man who was sentenced to life in a mental health hospital for a brutal, random 2009 murder is back behind bars this week, after police arrested him for breaking out of his rehabilitation center and spending a month on the lam, court records show.
Michael Villalobos, 41, became a wanted man on Aug. 21, after escaping a mental health rehabilitation center in Los Angeles. He was arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on Sept. 23 and has been extradited to Contra Costa County, where prosecutors will try for a second time to convince a judge to keep Villalobos in a locked facility, something they failed to to at a court date back in May, records show.
In 2009, Villalobos beat to death 79-year-old Euvaldo Sisneros while the two passed each other on a sidewalk. The two didn’t know each other and the murder had no apparent motive, police said at the time. Villalobos later pleaded guilty to second degree murder, but in a pre-arranged deal with prosecutors, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and given mental healthcare in lieu of prison.
At the time of his sentencing, prosecutors warned that Villalobos becomes dangerous to others when he’s unmedicated and that he had multiple assault convictions before the murder.
Villalobos has spent the last 18 years in various mental healthcare facilities, most recently one based at a neighborhood on Hover Street in Los Angeles, authorities said.
Back in May, Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Julia Campins denied a prosecution motion to move him from that facility to the Napa State Hospital, a locked facility that routinely holds incarcerated people with mental illnesses. Campins faced criticism over a similar situation last year, when a man who’d held a Lafayette family hostage escaped a transitional housing unit after the judge allowed him to qualify for a mental health diversion program over prosecutors’ objections.
The Contra Costa District Attorney’s office is renewing its motion in light of Villalobos’ alleged escape attempt. He is next due in court at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.