LOS ANGELES -- Apparently guilt-stricken over leading his younger brother into a life of crime, a Simi Valley, Calif., man served the brother's six-month jail term, a Los Angeles County sheriff's detective says.
Now, prosecutors are considering billing Crispian Rawlings $9,000 in room and board for the six months he spent as a taxpayer-supported convict -- provided they can find him. He and his brother, Eric, disappeared recently.
"He got free meals, free bedding and free medical," Sheriff's Detective John Benedict said yesterday.
It was Detective Benedict who discovered that Mr. Rawlings, 25, actually had served the jail sentence imposed on Eric, 23, for a parole violation after a robbery at knifepoint of a Los Angeles woman in 1992.
"I think Chris [was] feeling somewhat guilty" about getting his brother involved in criminal activities, Detective Benedict said. "He [was] trying to be a big brother."
In 1992, the Rawlings brothers -- who look very similar -- together robbed the woman, who was an acquaintance, Detective Benedict said. On Jan. 6, 1993, Eric Rawlings pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery charges and was sentenced to a year in prison and three years' probation, Detective Benedict said.
Charges against Crispian Rawlings were dropped when the robbery victim vanished, Detective Benedict said.
With credit for several months spent in County Jail awaiting trial, Eric Rawlings was soon released, Deputy District Attorney Ken Barshop said. But on June 22, 1993, a warrant was issued for his arrest because he skipped an interview with his probation officer, Mr. Barshop said.
In August, a man identifying himself as Eric Rawlings walked into Superior Court Judge Meredith Taylor's court and turned himself in for parole violation. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
He was released six months later for good behavior.
That man, contend authorities, was Crispian Rawlings, who next surfaced in June 1994, when he was questioned by Detective Benedict after his arrest for credit card theft.
Detective Benedict had assembled a file on Crispian Rawlings. Knowing the brothers were close, he also had information on Crispian's younger brother, and while questioning the elder Rawlings, he glanced at a jail photograph that purported to be that of Eric Rawlings.
As Detective Benedict tells it, he glanced up at Crispian Rawlings seated across the table. He glanced back at the photo, and then at Crispian.
"You and your brother look really alike," Detective Benedict recalled saying.
The man in the photo was bare-chested, his tattoos showing. Detective Benedict said he told Crispian to take off his shirt. Crispian, who stammered and turned red but complied, had tattoos that matched those in the picture, Detective Benedict said.
At that point, Benedict said, Crispian confessed to the swap.
At no point in Crispian Rawlings' alleged jail stay had anyone checked his fingerprints against those of the "real" Eric Rawlings, authorities said.