A 27-year-old man who sparked a nationwide media frenzy this spring during his three-week escape from a prison in western Japan received a four-year sentence on Friday.The Matsuyama District Court ruled that Tatsuma Hirao serve the jail term for fleeing an open prison in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, around 6 p.m. on April 8 and stealing about 30,000 yen ($260) in cash, a car, a minibike and some 60 other items worth a total of 310,000 yen, until police caught him in Hiroshima on April 30.Hirao's evasion from a massive police manhunt, before his capture in the city about 100 kilometers from th…READ FULL ARTICLE
