State police said Marico Ellis, 24, of Hartford, was recaptured in East Hartford. He appeared before a judge in Hartford court again on Friday..

HARTFORD — A man who was apprehended after he ran shoeless from a courthouse during an appearance on assault and weapon charges Thursday fled out of concern for his newborn daughter, his public defender said when he again appeared Friday.

“He does realize that he made things worse,” attorney Hillary Carpenter said in state Superior Court in Hartford about 24 hours after he bolted. Marico Ellis’ baby girl was born Aug. 7, she said.

Ellis, 24, appeared in court Friday on crutches, and despite his apparent physical state, the prosecutor, Jessica Cruz, said he is “an utmost flight risk and a danger to society.”

Judge Stephanie A. Damiani agreed, saying Ellis essentially refused to comply with court orders Thursday.

“The conduct he displayed yesterday was not indicative of him returning to court,” she said.

She ordered him held on $1.3 million bail on two charges of failure to appear in court.

Ellis ran from the same courthouse just after noon Thursday, vaulting over benches. The Hartford resident had been in court appearing before Judge Kevin C. Doyle, who was preparing to raise his bond, judicial officials said.

“The defendant, sensing that his appearance was not going well, then fled from the courtroom, over several gallery pews and made it out the front door and fled toward Park Street,” said Rhonda Hebert, a judicial spokesperson.

Ellis was not in custody at the time he fled, according to Hebert.

The incident led the judge to order Ellis’ rearrest with a total bond of nearly $2 million, Hebert said Thursday.

Hours later, Ellis was taken into custody in East Hartford. It wasn’t clear exactly what time police found him, but state police confirmed he had been rearrested in a post on the agency’s Twitter account around 11 p.m. Thursday.

Court records show Ellis was scheduled to appear in Hartford court Thursday in three different cases. The most recent case was for an arrest on charges of criminal possession of a handgun and violation of probation in March. Records show Ellis posted $75,000 bond in that case.

Ellis is also facing charges from an incident in January when Hartford police allege he pistol-whipped and stomped on another man in the city’s Upper Albany neighborhood. When police encountered Ellis on the street shortly after the alleged assault, an officer found a bag full of suspected narcotics on him, according to a warrant for his arrest. Police said they also found a handgun with an obliterated serial number tucked under the seat of his girlfriend’s car.

According to the report, Hartford police were called to a home on Magnolia Street for a reported pistol whipping around 4 p.m. on Jan. 20. The victim, a 24-year-old Hartford resident, told police he was dating one of Ellis’ family members, the report stated. The man told police he and Ellis had a prior argument, according to the report.

The man told police that on the day in January, he was staying with his girlfriend on Enfield Street when Ellis came over and confronted him for being there, the report stated.

The man told police Ellis had pulled out a gun and “cocked it back,” and threatened to kill him, the report stated. As the man was trying to gather his things to leave, Ellis “struck him five or six times in the face and head with the gun,” knocking him to the floor, and stomping on his head and neck a dozen times, the report stated. The man told police Ellis then pointed the gun at his stomach and threatened to kill him if he saw him again, the report stated.

The man said he then ran away and hid and called police while Ellis drove after him, the report stated.

Police located Ellis walking on Vine Street. During a patdown, police said they found a 1 gallon plastic bag containing “several knotted baggies containing a white rock like substance” and “numerous” wax paper bundles, the report stated.

Police said a 9 mm Taurus handgun with its serial numbers obliterated was also found under the front passenger seat of a car police had seen Ellis tossing something into, according to the report. The car belonged to Ellis’ girlfriend, police said.

Police also contacted Ellis’ probation officer. Ellis had been charged with possession of a machine gun in 2019, police wrote in the report.

Christine Dempsey contributed to this report

Peter Yankowski is a breaking news reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media. He previously reported for the Danbury News-Times and, before that, the Ridgefield Press.