Tosa Police Nab Fugitive Felon Missing for 2 Years

Wauwatosa police put the cuffs on a man wanted for two years after he fell into the fugitive files while under extended supervision for armed robbery.

At 4:34 p.m. last Friday, Lamar Cassle Vance, a 25-year-old Milwaukeean, was arrested as a fugitive felon, and for obstruction, after he was stopped at West Wisconsin Avenue and Hawley Road for displaying suspended license plates.

Vance told police he had no driver’s license, but he presented a valid Wisconsin ID card. But when the name on that card came back with a warrant, and police informed him he was under arrest, Vance burst into tears and began to yell that he loved his girlfriend, who was a passenger in the car.

Officers told him to calm down – the warrant was only for a traffic offense and he would soon be released. His girlfriend had already offered to follow them to the station and post bail.

But Vance kept crying, and jumping around, and trying to pull away from the officer restraining him. He continued to act “dramatically” in the back of the squad car all the way to the station, the arresting officer reported.

And no wonder. The ID he had given police belonged to his brother, who was wanted for nothing more than an unpaid traffic ticket.

Vance, however, knew he would soon be identified correctly through a fingerprint scan as a fugitive who had been on the lam for two years while on probation for armed robbery.

Vance's adult record begins with a Class A misdemeanor theft conviction (no contest) in 2004 and includes his October 2006 conviction (guilty plea) for armed robbery with threat of force – a Class C felony punishable by up to 40 years in prison.

However, Vance was given a seven-year sentence, with only three years to be served and four under extended supervision.

The terms of supervision were apparently not to his liking. He disappeared from view two years ago. But for taking the wheel in Wauwatosa with suspended plates, Vance is now back in jail and probably on his way back to prison.

The obstruction charge, filed Monday, could net him an extra nine months if he's convicted.