A man who broke out of jail after being arrested in Cortez for stealing a car was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Twelfth Judicial Circuit Judge Susan B. Maulucci ordered Meren Ed Thompson, 43, of Sarasota, into the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections after accepting his Jan. 23 guilty pleas in two cases.
According to the pleas, the sentence included $2,210 in restitution payments, $200 to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and one-year driver’s license suspension.
Thompson was given credit for time served in the county jail, 135 days on the first case and 48 days on the second.
He had faced 32 years in prison.
In the first case, Thompson was charged with five counts — motor vehicle theft, fleeing and eluding an officer, driving while license revoked, battery to a police dog and obstructing an officer without violence.
Thompson had led deputies on a chase Aug. 27, 2014, first in a stolen vehicle and then on land after he jumped out of the vehicle. He fled on foot and hid until a sheriff’s canine found him under a home in the 12200 block of 45th Avenue West, Cortez, according to MCSO reports.
After his arrest and in the Manatee County jail awaiting trial, Thompson escaped from MCSO custody Nov. 23 through a gap in a fence while on a work detail at the jail complex.
The second case for the jailbreak was opened after Thompson was arrested by a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputy Dec. 6 on a warrant.
According to the MCSO, Thompson carjacked a truck in Hillsborough County before his Seminole County arrest.
After Thompson serves time in the DOC, he will be taken to Hillsborough County to face charges on the carjacking, according to the state attorney office.