A convicted killer who broke out of a Tennessee prison treated himself to cold beer and garlic bread, then stole a truck and three guns during 10 days on the run before officers caught him in another state, the New York Post reports.
Jacob Morley, 28, is serving a life sentence for the 2022 murder of a co-worker, Cody Birchfield. Birchfield’s body was found stuffed in a box under Morley’s home after he had been missing for several weeks. Morley was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest.
Morley escaped from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, in Tennessee’s far northwestern corner, on Oct. 25 after slipping through a fence in his prison clothes, according to the Associated Press. Surveillance video showed him stealing a truck from a farm about two miles away. That truck was later found abandoned in Marion, Illinois, about 120 miles north of the prison. Prison officials offered a reward of up to $17,500 for information leading to his arrest.
Investigators said Morley then holed up in a farm shed in Marion and made himself at home, drinking beer and making garlic bread as authorities closed in.
“How he ended up in Marion is kind of a mystery,” Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Diederich said. The sheriff said there is no evidence anyone helped Morley.
Authorities believe Morley walked about three miles to the farm after ditching the first stolen truck. Surveillance cameras recorded him walking away from the vehicle and at several points along Route 13, but Diederich said the rough terrain made it hard for officers to catch up with him.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Morley admitted to stealing a second truck from the Marion farm, along with two rifles and a shotgun. Diederich said Morley also left a note behind apologizing for the theft.
Morley was captured Tuesday near Kansas City, Missouri, more than 350 miles from the Tennessee prison. It remains unclear why he ended up there. Tennessee District Attorney General Danny Goodman Jr. said he plans to file additional charges against him.
It is not the first time Morley has tried to outrun police. When he saw deputies at his home in the Birchfield case, he led officers on a chase that ended in North Carolina, authorities said.
The escape is the latest black eye for Tennessee’s prison system. Several violent attacks have been reported at the Northwest Correctional Complex in recent years, and a grand jury in July returned dozens of indictments for five inmate killings and other violent acts there. Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada resigned after the failed execution of Christa Pike in September.
“We need new leadership,” Republican state Sen. Tom Hatcher said of the department, adding that lawmakers are “doing oversight work behind the scenes about several of our prisons.”