A man accused of sexually assaulting seven girls and women was recaptured late Monday, a week after escaping from jail by rappelling down the building on bed sheets, police said.

Reynaldo E. Rapalo, 34, is accused of terrorizing the Miami's Little Havana and a nearby neighborhood called Shenandoah in 2002 and 2003. At the time of his escape, he was awaiting a February trial that could have sent him to prison for life.

Police chased him down on foot on a southwest Miami street after a tipster called in a description of Rapalo near a video store, Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said.

Rapalo and another inmate escaped Dec. 20 after climbing through a vent in the ceiling of a cell and onto a sixth-floor roof, police said. The vent was supposed to be locked, but it had been pried open, and bars blocking it were cut.

Officers scoured neighborhoods, airports, train stations and ports for Rapalo, a Honduran native, and officers were assigned to victims who still live in the area.

Police have said the sawlike tools used in the escape may have been smuggled in, and Rapalo apparently plotted the breakout for months.

When confronted by officers, Rapalo said he was a "homeless guy from Nicaragua, that he was worried about immigration" in an attempt to mislead them, Detective Alcides Velez said.

Rapalo was being held for questioning and was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, Commander Linda O'Brien said.

The other inmate, Idanio Bravo, who was also awaiting trial on sexual assault charges, was captured outside the jail after breaking his legs when he jumped.