Escaped Tennessee Prisoner Jacob Morley Recaptured in Missouri
Jacob Allen Morley, 28, was recaptured on Tuesday in Missouri after more than a week on the run from a Tennessee prison. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the state's criminal investigation agency, confirmed the capture near Kansas City, according to KMBC. Morley was apprehended by the state highway patrol before midday, according to The Guardian.
Morley escaped on 25 October from the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, about 90 miles north of Memphis. He slipped through a fence while still wearing his prison clothes, the Guardian reported. Prison officials offered a reward of up to $17,500 for information leading to his arrest.
Morley was serving a life sentence for the 2022 killing of Cody Birchfield, a co-worker. He was convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, tampering with evidence, vandalism and evading arrest. A life sentence in Tennessee can include the possibility of parole, the release of a prisoner before the full term is served, and WSMV reported that Morley's sentence included that possibility. Morley and Birchfield lived in Carter County in eastern Tennessee. Birchfield's body was found in a box under Morley's home after he had been missing for a few weeks.
Authorities said automated license plate readers, cameras that record vehicle plates, showed Morley travelling through Missouri. Surveillance video showed him stealing a truck from a farm near the prison. That truck was later abandoned in Marion, Illinois, about 120 miles north of the prison.
The Guardian also reported that when Morley saw deputies at his home, he led officers on a chase that ended in North Carolina.
In September, the failed execution of Christa Pike took place in Tennessee. Frank Strada, the state's Department of Correction commissioner, resigned after less than three years in the job, following that failed execution.
Separately, a grand jury in July returned dozens of indictments for five prisoner killings and other violent acts.
