A rape suspect wanted on a $10 million warrant in California stopped over in Lancaster prior to his arrest Thursday in upstate New York.
According to police, Eugene Lee Upshaw, 45, of Phoenix, Ariz., was being sought by U.S. Marshals for allegedly raping a woman in the Los Angeles area in August 2009 after asking her for a ride.
He is charged in Los Angeles County with kidnapping, rape, assault with a deadly weapon and sodomy. He is also a suspect in unsolved rapes in Washington and Oregon and is a "person of interest" in a homicide investigation in Phoenix, police said.
According to police, Upshaw, a commercial truck driver, befriended another trucker earlier this week in Arizona and rode with him to Lancaster. While here, the trucker picked up a load of metal pipes destined for a trucking business in Avoca, N.Y. where interstates 390 and 86 intersect 55 miles southeast of Rochester.
Tipped that Upshaw was heading toward Steuben County in New York, marshals alerted New York authorities, and a SWAT team was waiting for Upshaw when the truck he was riding in arrived at its destination in Avoca Thursday night.
Upshaw surrendered without resistance and is being held without bail in the Steuben County jail pending extradition proceedings.