The state prison inmate who walked away from a work detail Monday is the same man who eluded police in East Greenwich in May 2012 after encountering a homeowner during a house break.

Keurys Pena, 25, also known as Michael Santana, escaped at around 12:50 p.m. Monday from the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston while on a work assignment at the Prison Industries building there. Pena, of Providence, is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence for breaking and entering.

On Aug 25, 2012, Pena and two others were arrested after an East Greenwich woman returned to her house on Middle Road and found two men carrying her TV from the house to a car parked in her driveway. The woman, in her car, fled and called 911.

The subsequent manhunt brought in officers from a number of neighboring towns and the state police as several neighborhoods in the Frenchtown, Tillinghast and Middle Road areas were searched. Police stopped a car with Pena and two others on Tillinghast Road near Frenchtown Road and arrested a woman passenger but the two other occupants, including Pena, who was driving, fled on foot.

After about two hours, both Pena and the third person were arrested.

Pena, 5-foot-8 and about 200 pounds, was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans.

“We do have information received concerning one of the house breaks in East Greenwich, where he and an accomplice approached the homeowner that surprised them during the house break, which gives us a little cause for concern,” said RI State Police Major Todd Catlow.

If you see him, call the State Police Lincoln Woods Barracks at (401) 444-1100.