A Bronx, N.Y., woman who fled a Stamford courthouse to avoid sentencing in a shoplifting case last April has been apprehended in California — after police said she was caught stealing again.
Shushanna Blake, 31, whose last known address was 3217 Ely Ave. in the Bronx, is serving jail time in California until Greenwich police can bring her back to the state to face charges, police said.
Lt. Kraig Gray, spokesman for the department, said Blake attempted to fool California authorities about who she was to avoid being caught.
“Miss Blake was picked up for shoplifting out in California,” Gray said. “She initially gave a fake name, but when fingerprinted, it came back in the computer who she really was and that she was wanted by the Greenwich Police Department.”
Gray said although the hunt to find Blake is over, it could be several months before she is returned to Connecticut to faces a failure to appear charge and convictions on larceny charges.
Blake, who is also known as “Sexy Shushanna,” was last seen in a state Superior Court in Stamford courtroom where a jury found her guilty of sixth-degree larceny and failure to appear — charges that stemmed from an August 2008 shoplifting spree on Greenwich Avenue.
Immediately following her conviction, the prosecutor told a judge he wished to additionally charge her with being a persistent larceny offender, which could have added a five-year jail term to the 15-month sentence she was already facing.
Her lawyer asked the judge for a moment to speak with Blake to explain the situation.
Blake never returned. Judicial marshals found a security camera recording of Blake walking out the front door of the courthouse alone.\A
