13:44 pm Jail escapee captured short distance away
A Carter County Jail prisoner reportedly climbed the outer fence of the modular pod units Thursday and was then caught by alert deputies a short distance away along E. Elk Avenue.
Deputy Larry Vaughn said that approximately 4:54 p.m., while walking in the back parking lot of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department, he heard Deputy Tracie Phipps yell “stop.”
Vaughn turned around and observed a white male in white long underwear climbing the fence behind the pods. The white male, later identified as Joseph Wayne Hatley, 21, of 180 Little Ave., Elizabethton, threw a towel over the razor wire and jumped onto the top of the mobile carport or sallyport canopy. Deputy Phipps continued to give Hatley verbal commands to stop.
Lt. Dean Jones and Vaughn went under the carport as Hatley ran across the top of the canopy. Hatley then jumped to the ground and began running toward the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension office, which sits along E. Elk Avenue.
Vaughn said he then took Hatley to the ground and the prisoner immediately began to try to regain his feet. As Vaughn forced Hatley back to the ground, Phipps and Jones continually instructed the prisoner to stop resisting. They were finally able to take him into custody.
According to an arrest warrant, Hatley is currently serving time for violation of probation from criminal court on an underage DUI charge. As a result of Thursday’s incident, he is being charged with escape and resisting arrest.
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