‘Dangerous sex offender’ given 21 months in prison

By Kaitlyn Bancroft

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    SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSL) — A “dangerous sex offender” who escaped from a state hospital in Kansas and was arrested in Utah three months later will spend a little under two years in prison.

Utah District Court Judge David Barlow ordered Thursday that John Freeman Colt serve 21 months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Colt pleaded guilty in August 2022 to failure to register as a sex offender, a charge that acknowledges he “traveled in interstate and foreign commerce,” according to a plea agreement.

Colt was arrested in September 2021 near Torrey following a high-speed chase with deputies from the Wayne and Sevier county sheriffs’ offices. He had been on the run since June 30, 2021, after he escaped from the Larned State Hospital’s Sexual Predator Treatment Program in Kansas by posing as a doctor, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which called Colt a “dangerous sex offender.”

He was originally sentenced in December of 2001 to five years in prison for his conviction on multiple charges including aggravated sexual battery and attempted rape.

“After his criminal sentence was completed, the state of Kansas courts deemed him a sexually violent predator at high risk to commit a future sex offense and too dangerous to be released. He was indefinitely civilly committed … in 2007, where he has resided until the escape,” U.S. Marshals said in a prepared statement issued at the time of Colt’s Utah arrest.

Investigators say Colt planned his escape for months. During that time, he managed to obtain a replica of a staff hospital identification badge and dress clothes, and then shaved off his beard and long hair on the morning of his escape, according to the statement.

“He put blankets under his bed covers making it appear he was still in bed sleeping. He was then able to convince a new staff worker — that he targeted — that he was in fact a new doctor and needed help finding his way out. Posing as a doctor, Colt was able to make his way past five secured doors and ultimately outside the gates,” the Marshals stated.

The week before Colt was apprehended, U.S. Marshals announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, stating he “may be traveling or camping in or around state or national parks throughout Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas or Utah.”

After seeing news reports of Colt, a witness in Wayne County contacted the sheriff’s office to report that a man who resembled Colt, who had been using the name “James Holt,” had been camping in the Torrey area since early August, according to a prepared statement from Wayne County government officials.

Wayne County Sheriff Dan Jensen and three detectives from Sevier County checked out the campsite. The Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter was also called in to assist.

“As Sheriff Jensen and sheriff’s deputies were staging a few miles from Colt’s campsite, they saw Colt roll by on his blue motorcycle and gave chase, reaching speeds up to 100 mph for a couple of miles,” according to the prepared statement.

One deputy was able to cut Colt off, bringing the chase to stop, and Colt was taken into custody.

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