A man convicted in 1996 or stalking and threatening to kill US pop star Madonna has escaped from a psychiatric hospital, Los Angeles police have said.
Robert Dewey Hoskins, described by police as "highly psychotic" left a state hospital where he had been committed last year following a conviction for vandalism.
Police said in a news release that he can be "extremely violent" and should not be approached by members of the public.
Hoskins was jailed in 1996 after scaling Madonna's perimeter wall at her LA home.
The singer testified against him during his trial. She said that she had nightmares about the homeless man from Oregon after seeing him near her home the previous year.
She said her bodyguard told her Hoskins claimed she was supposed to be his wife, and "if he couldn't have me, he was going to slice my throat from ear to ear".
While Madonna was away from her home and in Florida later that year, he scaled the perimeter wall, jumped into her pool and was eventually shot twice by a security guard.
The Los Angeles Superior Court judge who handed down the maximum sentence, said she believed him to be a continued danger" to society.
Upon his release from prison, Hoskins was sent to a California hospital. He was eventually let go but was arrested again in July 2011 and sent to a different health facility in the Los Angeles-area community of Norwalk.
Police said they have searched areas where Hoskins may try to go, including the city of Long Beach, which is south of Los Angeles.
Agencies