Jackson Free Press

FRANKLINTON, La. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a man whose violent crimes started a three-week manhunt in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Washington Parish district attorney said.

Kaunda Lopaz Magee, 40, was convicted on nine counts, including two with mandatory life sentences, and was sentenced Friday, Warren Montgomery said in a news release.

Montgomery said that in October 2011, Magee forced his way into a house in rural Pine, tied up and raped an 18-year-old man, put him into a closet and threatened to kill him if he came out. Magee drove off in the victim's truck with stolen guns, televisions, and other electronics, he said.

The man untied himself and called the sheriff's office. Authorities said Magee shot at a Louisiana state trooper who followed the truck, starting a chase into Mississippi. He crashed the truck and ran into heavy woods.

He was arrested in Osyka, Mississippi, after a door-to-door search turned him up in a camper-trailer. The owner shot him in self-defense, Montgomery said.

While awaiting trial last year, he escaped from a jail transport vehicle on the way back from a Franklinton hospital, where Magee had been taken after complaining of severe shoulder pain. He was found in a drainage pipe, still handcuffed but out of his waist chain.

Montgomery said jurors deliberated about 2½ hours Wednesday, convicting Magee on aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping, both of which carry mandatory life sentences, as well as aggravated burglary, theft of a vehicle over $1,500, aggravated flight, three counts of attempted manslaughter, and one of attempted first degree murder.