A 'psychotic' stalker who broke into Madonna's estate and threatened to slit her throat has been captured following his escape from a mental hospital.
It was feared that Robert Dewey Hoskins who walked out of the Metropolitan State Hospital in Southern California last Friday could target actress Halle Berry, police said.
Hoskins is 'highly psychotic' and can be extremely violent, police said.
Captured: Robert Dewey Hoskins, seen here in 1996, was convicted of threatening to kill singer Madonna
But after a massive manhunt, the convicted stalker was apprehended in Long Beach and is now in custody.
Hoskins served a 10-year prison sentence for stalking and threatening Madonna after being convicted by a jury in 1996.
He had finished his sentence for and had been receiving treatment at the hospital after being committed there last year, investigators say.
The singer, whose full name is Madonna Veronica Louise Ciccone, reluctantly testified against the man, who was shot by her personal security after he jumped the fence of her Hollywood Hills home.
Madonna, pictured here performing during the halftime show at the Super Bowl on Sunday, was left terrified
Fearful: Actress Halle Berry, pictured here in LA, was reportedly considering fleeing the country after hearing of Hoskins' release
The 53-year-old told how she feared for her life after Hoskins invaded her property several times in 1995 and gave her staff a note threatening to slit her throat.
A more recent handout of Hoskins shows him clean shaven
She told the court she was sickened to be in the same room with the then drifter, who was then 39, who had threatened to slice her 'from ear to ear' if she did not marry him.
A jury found him guilty of one count of stalking Madonna, three of making threats against her and one of assaulting her bodyguard at the pop star's Hollywood estate.
Court records show he was then convicted of vandalism in July 2011.
Hoskins had more recently set his sights on Halle, 45, who according to reports is planning to flee the U.S. to France with boyfriend Olivier Martinez and daughter Nahla.
'Friends are scared for her life because Robert Hoskins wants to kill her,' a source said.
Madonna did not comment on Hoskins' escape.
Following the 1996 verdict, Madonna's lawyer Nicholas DeWitt called the singer to tell her the verdict.
Madonna, shown in this 1995 picture, gave evidence in the case at that time
'She's very, very relieved and feels very satisfied,' Mr DeWitt told reporters, adding that her home was put up for sale since she did not want to live there anymore after Hoskins invaded the estate.
Madonna's bodyguard shot and wounded Hoskins, who climbed the wall around the pop star's estate, jumped into a pool and threatened to kill her if she did not marry him.
Hoskins' lawyer claimed the pop star was 'a prima donna' who did not know when to stop acting. Attourney John Myers argued that the star's bodyguard overreacted when he shot Hoskins twice in May 29, 1995, and that the drifter was guilty only of trespassing at Madonna's estate.
The prosecution had wound up its case by showing the jury the bizarre note Hoskins wrote asking the star to marry him.
'Will you be my wife for keeps?' the man had scrawled across an obscure printed religious tract that bore the word 'Defiled' at the top. Around the word was scribbled 'Madonna' and 'Louise Ciccone'.
Deputy District Attorney Rhonda Saunders told the jury: 'She (Madonna) was only two or three feet away from him that day that he threatened to slice her throat from ear to ear.'
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