LOS ANGELES (AP) - An inmate convicted of stalking Madonna and
threatening to slash her throat was captured Friday, a week after
police said the "highly psychotic" man walked away from a mental
hospital.

Robert Dewey Hoskins was taken into custody in Long Beach, where
authorities said he may have fled after his escape from the
Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, about eight miles away,
police said.

He had been committed there last year and was returned to the
facility after his arrest. Police didn't comment about how Hoskins
escaped or where he had been over the past week.

A message left with a spokeswoman for the California Department
of Mental Health was not immediately returned.

Hoskins, 54, served a 10-year prison sentence for stalking and
threatening Madonna after being convicted by a jury in 1996.

The singer reluctantly testified against Hoskins, who was shot
by her personal security after he jumped the fence of her
25,000-square-foot Hollywood Hills home.

Hoskins had told the singer's assistants he would either marry
Madonna or slash her throat from ear to ear.

At trial, Madonna said she felt sick to her stomach because she
was in the same room as Hoskins and had nightmares about him
chasing her. She said she was in Miami when she received a call,
hearing that her bodyguard shot him.

"It was like a bad dream," she said then. "I couldn't believe
it was actually happening and he had tried to make his threats a
reality."

A phone message left with Madonna's spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg
wasn't immediately returned.

Police asked for the public's help Thursday in locating Hoskins.
They said he is "highly psychotic" and can be extremely violent
but didn't elaborate.

After his release from prison, Hoskins completed a stay at
Atascadero State Hospital, where he was determined to be mentally
disturbed, police said. He was convicted of vandalism in July 2011
and was eventually placed in the Norwalk facility.