Sex offender from N.Y. jailed pending extradition

SCRANTON -- A convicted sex offender from New York charged with failure to register an address with authorities was captured Thursday by the U.S. Marshals Service.

U.S. Marshal Martin Pane said Chester Jones, 51, was apprehended in the 600 block of Carey Avenue in Hanover Township.

Jones was being sought for allegedly violating Megan's Law by failing to register as a convicted sex offender.

According to New York state, Jones' last registered address was West Raymond Street in Roosevelt, Nassau County, N.Y.

Jones was sentenced in 1998 to five to 10 years in a New York state prison on a conviction of first-degree rape, an offense that required Jones to register as a convicted sex offender upon his release from custody.

An arrest warrant was issued for Jones in April 2011 in Nassau County.

After Jones was captured, he was turned over to Hanover Township police for processing and charged with being a fugitive from justice. He was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility pending extradition to New York.

Pane said the U.S. Marshals Service continues to investigate Jones to determine if he violated the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, which made it a federal offense for a convicted sex offender to flee from state to state to avoid registration requirements.