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AP via Liberty County Sheriff's Department
Eric McGowen, 20, was captured Tuesday after vanishing on Aug. 29 during a break in the proceedings of his rape trial in Texas.
A man who fled his Texas rape trial in late August was back in custody on Tuesday, after reportedly being found on the toilet in a Houston-area apartment, authorities said.
Officials arrested 20-year-old Eric McGowen without incident, in an apartment complex in northeast Houston at 9:15 a.m. CT Tuesday, Click2Houston.com reported. Officers told Houston's CBS-affiliate KHOU that he was arrested and handcuffed while sitting on the toilet. The U.S. Marshals Service says authorities were able to find McGowen with information provided to the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force.
McGowen had been charged in the repeated group sexual assault of an 11-year-old Texas girl. He fled his trial for this case on Aug. 29, the same day the now 13-year-old victim testified about the attacks in Cleveland, Texas, about 45 miles northeast of Houston. Authorities had been looking for McGowen ever since.
The trial went on without McGowen, and on Aug. 30 he was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child. He was then sentenced in absentia to 99 years in prison.
Related: Sex assault of girl, 11, divides Texas town
McGowen was among a group of 20 adults and juveniles who were accused of sexually assaulting the girl on at least five occasions over a three-month span in 2010, Click2Houston.com reported.
McGowen was the first to stand trial. All six juveniles charged and six of the adults have pleaded guilty, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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