Mario Haynes

A registered sex offender wanted since he removed a monitoring ankle bracelet and disappeared nearly two years ago was captured Tuesday by police conducting an unrelated investigation.

Moultrie police arrested Mario Dwight Haynes, 23, after he ran from an officer who was investigating a vehicle that matched the description of one linked to an alleged burglar wanted by the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office.  Haynes ran from an officer who encountered him at about 7:45 p.m. among several people who were walking away from the vehicle that interested police, police Sgt. Daniel Lindsay said.

 The vehicle in the 400 block of Seventh Avenue Northwest was an identical match to the one linked to the county burglary, but was not the one law enforcement was seeking.

“The officer went to get a notebook to get names and he (Haynes) took off,” Lindsay said.

When officers and a police dog captured him at 11th Avenue Northwest, they found a small amount of suspected marijuana in his pocket, Lindsay said.

“When we ran his information, it came back with two felony warrants,” he said. “He absconded in June 2012.”  Sheriff’s Sgt. Jennifer Gay said that at about that time Haynes was on probation and removed an ankle bracelet monitoring his whereabouts.

 When police checked his last known address, a relative there told them that Haynes had moved away a few weeks earlier. Haynes was convicted of child molestation in 2008 and sentenced to a 10-year sentence, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He was released in May 2011.

He has been charged by the sheriff’s office with sex offender failed to register and felony probation violation. Police charged him with possession of marijuana and failure to obey officer.